Affective Influence on Context-Specific Proportion Congruent (CSPC) Effect

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinhui Zhang ◽  
Andrea Kiesel ◽  
David Dignath
Keyword(s):  
Flanker Task ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Neutral Context ◽  
Context Group ◽  
Affective Influences ◽  
Context Specific

Abstract. Congruency effects diminish in contexts associated with mostly incongruent trials compared with contexts associated with mostly congruent trials. Here, we aimed to assess affective influences on this context-specific proportion congruent (CSPC) effect. We presented either neutral or affective faces as context stimuli in a Flanker task and associated mostly incongruent trials with male/female faces for a neutral-context group and with angry/happy faces for a affective-context group. To assess general influences of affective valence, we compared CSPC effects between the neutral-context group and the affective-context group. To assess valence-specific influences, we compared the size of CSPC effects – for the affective-context group only – between participants for whom mostly incongruent trials were associated with angry faces and participants for whom mostly incongruent trials were associated with happy faces. However, the modulating influence on the CSPC effect from affective versus neutral contexts or from valence-proportion mappings was not statistically significant.

Ambulatory Assessment

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich W. Ebner-Priemer ◽  
Timothy J. Trull
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ambulatory Assessment ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Questionnaire Studies

Convergent experimental data, autobiographical studies, and investigations on daily life have all demonstrated that gathering information retrospectively is a highly dubious methodology. Retrospection is subject to multiple systematic distortions (i.e., affective valence effect, mood congruent memory effect, duration neglect; peak end rule) as it is based on (often biased) storage and recollection of memories of the original experience or the behavior that are of interest. The method of choice to circumvent these biases is the use of electronic diaries to collect self-reported symptoms, behaviors, or physiological processes in real time. Different terms have been used for this kind of methodology: ambulatory assessment, ecological momentary assessment, experience sampling method, and real-time data capture. Even though the terms differ, they have in common the use of computer-assisted methodology to assess self-reported symptoms, behaviors, or physiological processes, while the participant undergoes normal daily activities. In this review we discuss the main features and advantages of ambulatory assessment regarding clinical psychology and psychiatry: (a) the use of realtime assessment to circumvent biased recollection, (b) assessment in real life to enhance generalizability, (c) repeated assessment to investigate within person processes, (d) multimodal assessment, including psychological, physiological and behavioral data, (e) the opportunity to assess and investigate context-specific relationships, and (f) the possibility of giving feedback in real time. Using prototypic examples from the literature of clinical psychology and psychiatry, we demonstrate that ambulatory assessment can answer specific research questions better than laboratory or questionnaire studies.

Context specificity of conflict frequency-dependent control

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 1391-1400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Vietze ◽  
Mike Wendt
Keyword(s):  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Stimulus Location ◽  
Context Specificity ◽  
Stimulus Processing ◽  
Frequency Dependent ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Conflict Frequency ◽  
A Current ◽  
Processing Selectivity

Interference in the Eriksen flanker task has been shown to be reduced when the (relative) frequency of conflicting stimuli is increased, a modulation thought to reflect a higher degree of processing selectivity under conditions of frequent conflict (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001). Previous studies suggest that stimulus location acts as a contextual cue, resulting in location-specific adjustment of processing selectivity when different locations are associated with differential conflict frequencies (Corballis & Gratton, 2003; Wendt, Kluwe, & Vietze, 2008). In the current study we extend these findings by showing that not only stimulus location but also stimulus colour can be used for context-specific adjustments. These findings suggest that processing selectivity is adjusted in parallel with current stimulus processing, potentially serving to resolve a current conflict rather than to prepare for an upcoming new conflict.

scholarly journals Neural Processing of Cognitive Control in an Emotionally Neutral Context in Anxiety Patients

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 543
Author(s):  
Nicola König ◽  
Sarah Steber ◽  
Anna Borowski ◽  
Harald Bliem ◽  
Sonja Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Neutral Context ◽  
Emotional Context ◽  
Stimulus Evaluation

Impaired cognitive control plays a crucial role in anxiety disorders and is associated with deficient neural mechanisms in the fronto-parietal network. Usually, these deficits were found in tasks with an emotional context. The present study aimed at investigating electrophysiological and vascular signatures from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in anxiety patients versus healthy controls during an inhibition task integrated in an emotionally neutral context. Neural markers were acquired during the completion of a classical Eriksen flanker task. The focus of data analysis has been the ERPs N200 and P300 and fNIRS activations in addition to task performance. No behavioral or neural group differences were identified. ERP findings showed a larger N2pc and a delayed and reduced P300 for incongruent stimuli. The N2pc modulation suggests the reorienting of attention to salient stimuli, while the P300 indicates longer lasting stimulus evaluation processes due to increased task difficulty. FNIRS did not result in any significant activation potentially suggesting a contribution from deeper brain areas not measurable with fNIRS. The missing group difference in our non-emotional task indicates that no generalized cognitive control deficit but rather a more emotionally driven deficit is present in anxiety patients.

scholarly journals Contextual recruitment of selective attention can be updated via changes in task-relevance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholaus Brosowsky ◽  
Matthew John Charles Crump
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Manuscript Preparation ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Attention Tasks ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Context Cues ◽  
Specific Control

Evidence across a wide variety of attention paradigms shows that environmental cues can trigger adjustments to ongoing priorities for attending to relevant and irrelevant information. This context-specific control over attention suggests that cognitive control can be both automatic and flexible. For instance, in selective attention tasks, congruency effects are larger for items that appear in a context associated with infrequent conflict than in a context associated with frequent conflict. Since the to-be-presented context cannot be predicted or prepared for in advance, attention is assumed to be rapidly updated on-the-fly, triggered by the currently presented context. Context-specific control exemplifies how learning and memory processes can influence attention to enable cognitive flexibility. However, what determines the use of previously learned associations still remains unclear. In the current study, we examined whether task-relevance would influence the learning and use of context cues in a flanker task. Using a secondary counting task, context dimensions associated with differing levels of conflict were made task-relevant or -irrelevant across the experiment. In short, we found that making new contextual information task-relevant caused participants to suppress a previously learned context-attention association and adopt a new context-specific control strategy; all without changing the experimental stimuli. Furthermore, we found participants did not spontaneously learn about context-specific proportion manipulations (Experiment 2) and explicit instructions were insufficient for producing context-specific effects (Experiment 3). These results suggest that task-relevance is a key determinant of context-specific control. All data, analysis, manuscript preparation, and experimental design code can be found at https://osf.io/ztcyb/.

scholarly journals Affective Influences without Approach-Avoidance Actions: On the Congruence Between Valence and Stimulus-Response Mappings

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Motonori Yamaguchi ◽  
Jing Chen
Keyword(s):  
Response Selection ◽  
Affective Processing ◽  
Response Compatibility ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Spatial Stimulus ◽  
Stimulus Valence ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Stimulus Response Compatibility ◽  
Affective Influences

The valence of stimuli can influence performance in the spatial stimulus-response compatibility task, but this observation could arise from the process of selecting responses or selecting stimulus-response mappings. The response-selection account proposes that spatial compatible and incompatible keypress responses serve as approaching and avoiding actions to the target. The mapping-selection account suggests that there is congruence between stimulus valence and stimulus-response mappings; positive-compatible/negative-incompatible is more congruent than negative-compatible/positive-incompatible. Whereas affective valence was part of the target stimuli to which participants responded in the previous studies, the present study isolated affective valence from the target by presenting an additional mapping cue separately from the target, so that spatially compatible and incompatible keypress responses could no longer serve as approaching and avoiding actions to valenced target stimuli. The present results revealed that responses were still faster when positive and negative mapping cues were assigned to the spatially compatible and incompatible mappings than when the assignment was reversed. The finding supports the mapping-selection account, indicating that positive and negative cues influence performance without approach/avoidance actions to valenced stimuli. The experiment provides important implications as to how tasks are represented and are dependent on affective processing.

Individual Differences and Hemispheric Asymmetry While Processing Emotional Words

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay M. Niccolai ◽  
Thomas Holtgraves
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Hemispheric Asymmetry ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Hemispheric Differences ◽  
Affective Valence ◽  
Emotional Words ◽  
Emotion Words ◽  
The Right

This research examined differences in the perception of emotion words as a function of individual differences in subclinical levels of depression and anxiety. Participants completed measures of depression and anxiety and performed a lexical decision task for words varying in affective valence (but equated for arousal) that were presented briefly to the right or left visual field. Participants with a lower level of depression demonstrated hemispheric asymmetry with a bias toward words presented to the left hemisphere, but participants with a higher level of depression displayed no hemispheric differences. Participants with a lower level of depression also demonstrated a bias toward positive words, a pattern that did not occur for participants with a higher level of depression. A similar pattern occurred for anxiety. Overall, this study demonstrates how variability in levels of depression and anxiety can influence the perception of emotion words, with patterns that are consistent with past research.

Validation of the Procrastination at Work Scale

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 767-776
Author(s):  
U. Baran Metin ◽  
Toon W. Taris ◽  
Maria C. W. Peeters ◽  
Max Korpinen ◽  
Urška Smrke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Psychometric Characteristics ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Negative Links ◽  
Office Employees

Abstract. Procrastination at work has been examined relatively scarcely, partly due to the lack of a globally validated and context-specific workplace procrastination scale. This study investigates the psychometric characteristics of the Procrastination at Work Scale (PAWS) among 1,028 office employees from seven countries, namely, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. Specifically, it was aimed to test the measurement invariance of the PAWS and explore its discriminant validity by examining its relationships with work engagement and performance. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis shows that the basic factor structure and item loadings of the PAWS are invariant across countries. Furthermore, the two subdimensions of procrastination at work exhibited different patterns of relationships with work engagement and performance. Whereas soldiering was negatively related to work engagement and task performance, cyberslacking was unrelated to engagement and performance. These results indicate further validity evidence for the PAWS and the psychometric characteristics show invariance across various countries/languages. Moreover, workplace procrastination, especially soldiering, is a problematic behavior that shows negative links with work engagement and performance.

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