Abstract
In a set of three rapid serial visual presentation experiments, we investigated the effect of fearful and neutral face stimuli on the report of trailing scene targets. When the emotional expression of the face stimuli had to be indicated, fearful faces induced a stronger attentional blink (AB) than did neutral faces. However, with identical physical stimulation, the enhancement of the AB by fearful faces disappeared when participants had to judge the faces’ gender. If faces did not have to be reported, no AB was observed. Thus, fearful faces exhibited an effect on the AB that crucially depended on the observer’s attentional set. Hence, the AB can be influenced by an emotional T1 when T1 has to be reported, but this influence is modulated by task context. This result indicates a close connection between temporal attention and emotional processing that is modulated by task context.
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This research was funded by a grant from CoTeSys (Cognition for Technical Systems Cluster of Excellence) Project 125 and by Grant FOR 480 (TP4) from the German Research Foundation. Development of the NimStim Face Stimulus Set was overseen by Nim Tottenham and supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Early Experience and Brain Development. Please contact Nim Tottenham at tott0006@tc.umn.edu for more information concerning the stimulus set.
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Stein, T., Zwickel, J., Ritter, J. et al. The effect of fearful faces on the attentional blink is task dependent. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 104–109 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.1.104
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.1.104