The rapid detection and resolution of conflict between opposing action tendencies is crucial for our ability to engage in goal-directed behavior. Research in adults suggests that emotions might serve as a ‘relevance detector’ that alarms attentional and sensory systems, thereby leading to more efficient conflict processing. In contrast, previous research in children has almost exclusively stressed the impeding influence of emotion on the attentional system, as suggested by the protracted development of performance in ‘hot’ executive function tasks. How does emotion modulate conflict processing in development? We addressed this question applying a modified version of a color flanker task that either involved or did not involve emotional stimuli in preschool children (N = 43, with preregistered Bayesian sequential design, aged 2.8 – 7.0 years). Our results show a robust conflict effect with higher error rates in incongruent compared to congruent trials. Crucially, conflict resolution was faster in emotional compared to neutral conditions. Furthermore, while efficient conflict processing increases with age, we find evidence against an age-related change in the influence of emotion on conflict processing. Taken together, these findings provide first indication that emotion can trigger efficient control processes already from early on in life. In contrast to previous findings and theories in developmental psychology, this indicates that, depending on the role that emotion has in conflict processing, emotion may show a facilitative or impeding effect.
Positive emotion enhances conflict processing in preschoolers
