scholarly journals Recognition and Approach Responses Toward Threatening Objects

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Genschow ◽  
Arnd Florack ◽  
Michaela Wänke
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Module Theory ◽  
Time Task ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Motivational Account ◽  
Avoidance Responses ◽  
Threatening Stimuli ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Previous research suggests that positive stimuli are often approached as well as recognized faster than negative stimuli. We argue that this effect does not hold if negative stimuli are associated with threat. Based on fear module theory ( Öhman & Mineka, 2001 , 2003 ), we argue that individuals recognize threatening stimuli faster than positive stimuli because of a constant monitoring of the environment for threatening objects. Moreover, based on the assumption of a motivational account underlying approach-avoidance responses ( Krieglmeyer & Deutsch, 2010 ), we assume the recognition then directly evokes a careful and slow approach of threatening objects. Applying a response time task that measures approach movement and recognition times within the same task, we found that individuals recognize threatening pictures faster than positive pictures, but approach the threatening pictures slower than the positive pictures.

scholarly journals Evidence for the Embodiment of the automatic approach bias

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Solzbacher ◽  
Artur Czeszumski ◽  
Sven Walter ◽  
Peter König
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Drug Addiction ◽  
The Body ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Tendencies of approach and avoidance seem to be a universal characteristic of humans. Specifically, individuals are faster in avoiding than in approaching negative stimuli and they are faster in approaching than in avoiding positive stimuli. The existence of this automatic approach/avoidance bias has been demonstrated in many studies. Furthermore, this bias is thought to play a key role in psychological disorders like drug addiction and phobias. However, its mechanisms are far from clear. Theories of embodied cognition postulate, that the nature of gestures play a key role in this process.To shed light on the role of the involved gesture we employed a 2x2 factorial design with two types of stimuli. Participants had either to approach positive and avoid negative stimuli (congruent conditions) or to avoid positive stimuli and approach negative stimuli (incongruent conditions). Further, they responded either with a joystick or a button press on a response pad. Participants reacted faster in congruent conditions, i.e., avoiding negative stimuli and approaching positive stimuli, then in incongruent conditions. This replicates the known approach and avoidance bias. However, directly analyzing the button press condition participants revealed no reaction time advantage for congruent trials compared to incongruent trials. In contrast, in the joystick condition participants were significantly faster performing congruent reactions than incongruent reactions. This interaction, a significant reaction time advantage, when the response is enacted by moving a joystick towards or away from the body gives evidence that approach-avoidance tendencies have a crucial bodily component.

scholarly journals Valence Asymmetries in the Human Amygdala: Task Relevance Modulates Amygdala Responses to Positive More than Negative Affective Cues

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 842-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Stillman ◽  
Jay J. Van Bavel ◽  
William A. Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Goal Pursuit ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
Task Relevance ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Appetitive Stimuli ◽  
Affective Cues ◽  
Amygdala Activity ◽  
Task Goals ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Negative Stimuli

Organisms must constantly balance appetitive needs with vigilance for potential threats. Recent research suggests that the amygdala may play an important role in both of these goals. Although the amygdala plays a role in processing motivationally relevant stimuli that are positive or negative, negative information often appears to carry greater weight. From a functional perspective, this may reflect the fact that threatening stimuli generally require action, whereas appetitive stimuli can often be safely ignored. In this study, we examine whether amygdala activation to positive stimuli may be more sensitive to task goals than negative stimuli, which are often related to self-preservation concerns. During fMRI, participants were presented with two images that varied on valence and extremity and were instructed to focus on one of the images. Results indicated that negative stimuli elicited greater amygdala activity regardless of task relevance. In contrast, positive stimuli only led to a relative increase in amygdala activity when they were task relevant. This suggests that the amygdala may be more responsive to negative stimuli regardless of their relevance to immediate goals, whereas positive stimuli may only elicit amygdala activity when they are relevant to the perceivers' goals. This pattern of valence asymmetry in the human amygdala may help balance approach-related goal pursuit with chronic self-preservation goals.

Pleasure and arousal in the marketplace: Interpersonal differences in approach-avoidance responses

1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy M. Ridgway ◽  
Scott A. Dawson ◽  
Peter H. Bloch
Keyword(s):  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Responses

Valence Asymmetry in Attitude Formation

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 650-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Shook ◽  
Russ Clay
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Attitude Formation ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
The World ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Negative Stimuli

A considerable amount of research indicates that political conservatives and liberals perceive their social worlds very differently, with conservatives perceiving the world more negatively than liberals. Two studies examined how these varying perceptions may develop by exploring the relation between political ideology and attitude formation. In both studies, participants completed an evaluative conditioning paradigm in which novel stimuli were paired with either positive or negative images. Political conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli than conditioning with positive stimuli as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals. Conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology. These findings suggest fundamental differences in the formation of positive versus negative attitudes between conservatives and liberals.

scholarly journals Looking into your eyes: observed pupil size influences approach-avoidance responses

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 616-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Brambilla ◽  
Marco Biella ◽  
Mariska E. Kret
Keyword(s):  
Pupil Size ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Responses

On Wildebeests and Humans

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ap Dijksterhuis ◽  
Henk Aarts
Keyword(s):  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Better Than ◽  
Negative Stimuli

On the basis of a functional perspective, we hypothesized that negative stimuli are detected faster than positive stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants were subliminally presented with positive and negative words or with no words at all. After each presentation, participants were asked whether they had seen a word. They detected negative words more accurately than positive words. In Experiment 2, participants were subliminally presented with negative or positive words. After each presentation, they were asked whether the presented word was positive or negative. Negative words were correctly categorized more often than positive words. Experiment 3 showed that although participants correctly categorized negative words more often than positive words, they could not guess the meaning of the words better than would be expected by chance. The results are discussed against the background of recent findings on basic affective processes.

Approach-avoidance responses to visual stimuli in frogs

1966 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Biersner ◽  
Ronald Melzack
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Responses
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document