Distracted by pleasure: Effects of positive versus negative valence on emotional capture under load.

Gupta, Rashmi; Hur, Youngjin; Lavie, Nilli · 2015 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1037/emo0000112

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Summary

This study investigates how emotional valence (positive versus negative) and perceptual load interact to determine attentional capture by irrelevant distractors. While previous research established that high perceptual load can eliminate attention capture by negative emotional stimuli, the differential effects of positive valence remained unclear. The authors aimed to determine whether positive emotional distractors, like negative ones, are filtered out when attention is fully engaged, or if they possess a special status that allows them to capture attention regardless of task load. The researchers conducted three experiments using a letter search task where participants searched for target letters under conditions of low perceptual load (simple discrimination) or high perceptual load (complex discrimination). On 25% of trials, an irrelevant emotional distractor was presented at fixation. Experiment 1 used International Affective Picture System (IAPS) images of erotica (positive) and mutilated bodies (negative), matched for arousal. Experiment 2 used happy and angry faces. Experiment 3 used neutral faces that had acquired positive or negative value through a prior betting game involving monetary gain or loss. This design controlled for visual differences and ensured that any effects were due to emotional valence rather than stimulus properties. Across all three experiments, the results showed a consistent interaction between load and valence. Under low perceptual load, both positive and negative distractors significantly slowed reaction times compared to distractor-absent trials, with no difference in interference magnitude between valences. However, under high perceptual load, the interference caused by negative distractors was eliminated, bringing reaction times down to baseline levels. In contrast, high perceptual load failed to reduce interference from positive distractors; they continued to significantly slow performance. This pattern held true for innate emotional scenes, facial expressions, and learned emotional values. The findings demonstrate that attentional capture by irrelevant emotional distractors depends critically on both valence and perceptual load. While negative emotional stimuli can be ignored when attentional capacity is fully occupied by a demanding task, positive emotional stimuli retain the ability to capture attention even under high load. This highlights a "special status" for distractors associated with pleasure, suggesting that positive valence is more resistant to top-down filtering than negative valence. The results challenge the assumption that emotional capture is uniform across valences and imply that pleasure-related information may have a privileged access to attentional resources.

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• affect cognition
• attention selective divided