Presentation Information
[P1-12]Temporal competition and temporal promotion effects of visual arousal on visual search task
*Mizuki Mori1, Makoto Ichikawa2 (1. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Chiba University (Japan), 2. Graduate School of Humanities, Chiba University (Japan))
Keywords:
selective attention,emotional sensitivity,Individual Differences,ISI,accuracy
We investigated the temporal characteristics of the effect of emotional responses on performance in visual search task. Previous studies have shown that interfering effects of emotional responses evoked by viewing emotional picture on cognitive processing (temporal competition effect) would be strongest immediately after the presentation of the emotional picture, and it will decay within a short period. However, no systematic studies with various temporal conditions for stimuli have examined how the emotional response would affect the performance of the visual search task. In the present study, we presented the emotional pictures (neutral, or fearful) for 500 ms to evoke the emotional response, and then presented the stimulus for the visual search task. We prepared five conditions for the ISI between the emotional picture and stimulus for the visual search task (0, 120, 240, 360 and 480 ms), and three conditions for the duration of the visual search stimulus (100, 300, and 500 ms). In each trial, 45 participants conducted the visual search task after viewing the emotional pictures. In addition, they observed the same emotional pictures, and rated their emotional valence and arousal. Participants were divided equally into three groups in terms of their ratings for the arousal scale in viewing the fearful pictures. We found that the performance of the visual search task dropped with the ISI of 0 ms and 120 ms for the participant group who rated the fearful pictures as highly arousal while it significantly elevated with the ISI of 0 ms, 120 ms, and 480 ms for the participant groups who rated the fearful pictures as lowly arousal. These results suggest that there are two directions of effects of emotional response on the visual search (interfering, or promotion), and that the direction of effects would be determined by the individual emotional sensitivity.