Context effects on emotional disruption of perception: Distractor frequency does not mitigate emotion-induced blindness

Abstract

Poster presented at the 25th Annual Workshop on Object Perception, Attention, and Memory (Vancouver, BC).

Full text

Context eects on emotional disruption of perception: Distractor frequency
does not mitigate emotion-induced blindness
E: jenna.zhao@unsw.edu.au
Emotion-induced blindness: task-irrelevant
emotional distractors can impair perception of
subsequently presented target items, compared
to neutral distractors (Most et al., 2005)
Background
Jenna L. Zhao & Steven B. Most
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Task: Indicate the orientation of the rotated
target image in the stream
Does the proportion of negative
distractor trials have an eect on
emotion-induced blindness?
Sample Distractors
Negative Neutral
Experiment 2
100 ms/item
Distractor
Target
N = 49
Proportions
High
Low
Neg Neut
75%
75%
25%
25%
*Valence:
p < .001, ηp² = .707
Proportion:
p = .095, ηp² = .057
Valence x Proportion:
p = .487, ηp² = .010
Within-subjects, with no explicit information about proportions
N = 49
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
High Low
Accuracy (%)
Proportion of negative trials
Negative Neutral
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
High Low
Accuracy (%)
Proportion of negative trials
Negative Neutral
Between-subjects, with no explicit information about proportions
Experiment 1
*Valence:
p < .001, ηp² = .703
Proportion:
p = .376, ηp² = .009
Valence x Proportion:
p = .176, ηp² = .022
N = 85
Across all four experiments, participants did not exhibit diminished emotion-induced blindness when the proportion of negative trials
in the experiment were manipulated. Both high and low proportions of negative trials elicited the same degree of emotion-induced
blindness. While there was a signicant interaction in Experiment 4, it appeared to be driven by the neutral conditions.
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
High Low
Accuracy (%)
Proportion of negative trials
Negative Neutral
Within-subjects, with explicit information about proportions
*Valence:
p < .001, ηp² = .750
Proportion:
p = .375, ηp² = .018
Valence x Proportion:
p = .101, ηp² = .059
N = 46
50
55
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
High Low
Accuracy (%)
Proportion of Negative Trials
Negative Neutral
Between-subjects, with explicit information about proportions
*Valence:
p < .001, ηp² = .733
Proportion:
p = .417, ηp² = .008
Valence x Proportion:
p = .043, ηp² = .048
N = 85
Within-subjects: alternating blocks of high and low proportion
of negative trials
Between-subjects: either high or low proportion of negative
trials
Method Experiment 3 Experiment 4
Conclusions
In previous studies with non-emotional
distractors, increasing the frequency of distractor
trials reduced interference on those trials.
This was irrespective of whether participants were given no information or provided with explicit information about the proportions.
Together, the results suggest that manipulations of distractor frequency are not eective in mitigating emotion-induced blindness.
Most, S.B., Chun, M.M., Widders, D.M., & Zald, D.H. (2005). Attentional rubbernecking: Cognitive control and personality in emotion-induced blindness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 654-661.