Negative images attract early attention but only disgusting images keep hold of it
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1
VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands
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2
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
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3
Universite de Liege, Belgium
Even though disgust and fear are both negative emotions, they are characterized by different physiology and action tendencies. The aim of this ERP study was to examine whether fear- and disgust-evoking images would produce different attention bias effects. Participants (n = 20) were asked to identify a target which was briefly presented either left, right, above, or below a centrally presented IAPS image cue, which could be either disgust-evoking (e.g., dirty toilet), fear-evoking (e.g., pointed gun), or neutral (e.g., rowing boat). Consistent with our hypothesis, the time to identify the target was significantly longer for the disgust-evoking images than for the neutral- and fear-evoking images, which did not differ from each other. This suggests that only disgust- and not fear-evoking images keep hold of our attention for longer. ERP results were in agreement with this suggestion, showing an increased frontal positivity in the 250 to 600 ms time window for the disgust-evoking images only. Even so, both disgust- and fear-evoking images showed increased P2 amplitudes relative to the neutral images, suggesting that both types of negative images engage attention early. We theorize that for the frightening images this early attention engagement might be sufficient to enable quick defensive action. In contrast, the disgusting images may require prolonged attention to perform a full risk-assessment. These results have important implications for future emotion-attention research as they demand a more careful selection of stimulus materials that goes beyond the dimensions of valence and arousal.
Keywords:
Cognition,
EEG
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Cognition and Attention
Citation:
Van Hooff
H,
Vieweg
P,
Devue
C and
Theeuwes
J
(2011). Negative images attract early attention but only disgusting images keep hold of it.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00461
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Received:
25 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
28 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Hannie Van Hooff, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, jc.van.hooff@psy.vu.nl