Psychological Science ›› 2015, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 839-845.

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Positive mood Enhance Attentional Bias to Positive Stimuli:Engagement Bias versus Disengagement Bias

Han-Yue LIU1, 3   

  • Received:2014-04-10 Revised:2015-06-04 Online:2015-07-20 Published:2015-07-20

积极情绪促进对积极刺激注意偏向:投入与抽离

刘汉越1,王艳梅2,王振宏1   

  1. 1. 陕西师范大学
    2. 华东师范大学心理与认知科学学院
  • 通讯作者: 王艳梅

Abstract: Results of several studies were interpreted as demonstrating that compared with neutral mood,positive mood does enhance attentional engagement bias to positive stimuli.However,due to the application of dot-probe and emotional stroop paradigm which can’t disassociate engagement bias and disengagement bias,it is possible that these results indicating the benifical effect of positive mood on disengagement bias rather than engagement bias.In other words,intead of making positive stimuli more capable of capture and draw attention relative to neutral stimuli,postive mood may result in less disengagement from the positive stimuli compared to neutral stimul.The current study aims to examine whether postive mood enhance engagement bias or disengagement bias. 50 participates (30 female) participated this study. They were randomly assigned to the two mood-induced conditions:positive mood condition(N=25) vs neutral mood condition(N=25).A positive or neutral mood manipulation was followed by the modified dot probe task.In the modified dot probe task, two words are presented simultaneously for a short time at the top and bottom locations.After the offset of the two words,a dot emerge at the location of one of the two words.Participants are instructed to detect the location of the dot.The task consists of three kinds of trials:(1) the congruent trial ,in which a positive word and a neutral word are presented,followed by a dot emerging at the location of the positive word; (2) the incongruent trial,in which a positive word and a neutral word are presented,followed by a dot emerging at the location of the neutral word; (3)the neutral-neutral trial,in which two neutral words are presented,followed by a dot emerging at the location of the one of the neutral word. The 2(incongruent/congruent)×2(mood condition:positive /neutral) mixed-design ANOVA,with the mood condition being the between-subject variable,reveals that the interaction between the two variables is significant.To further illustrate the interaction effect,the attentional bias score is calculated by subtracting the mean reaction time of the congruent trial from the mean reaction time of the incongruent trial.The independent-sample t-test reveals that the attentional bias score of the the positive mood group is significantly larger than that of the neutral mood group,thus replicating the results of previous studies. The2(neutral-neutral/congruent)×2(mood condition:positive /neutral) mixed-design ANOVA,with the mood condition being the between-subject variable,reveals that the interaction between the two variables and the main effects of the two variables are all not significant,indicating that both neutral mood group and positive mood group show no engagement bias,thus there is no beneficial effect of postive mood on engagement bias. The 2(incongruent/neutral-neural)×2(mood condition:positive /neutral) mixed-design ANOVA, with the mood condition being the between-subject variable,reveals that the interaction between the two variables is significant.To further illustrate the interaction effect,the disengagement bias score is calculated by subtracting the mean reaction time of the neutral-neutral trial from the mean reaction time of the incongruent trial.The independent-sample t-test reveals reveals that the disengagement bias score of the the positive mood group is significantly larger than that of the neutral mood group,indicating that positive mood enhance disengagement bias . In summary,the results of this study suggest that positive mood enhance disengagement bias instead of engagement bias to positive stimuli. These results are further discussed in the light of hedonic contingency model.

Key words: positive mood, positive stimuli, attentional bias, attentional engagement, attentional disengagement

摘要: 一系列研究结果被认为反映了积极情绪促进投入注意至积极刺激的偏向。然而,由于所使用的范式不能分离对积极刺激的注意投入偏向和抽离偏向,这些研究结果也可能反映了积极情绪促进从积极刺激抽离注意更少的偏向。本研究采用音乐聆听和事件回忆唤起被试的积极或中性情绪,随后要求被试完成点探测范式的变式任务,通过中性-中性条件与一致条件的反应时之差测量投入偏向,以及不一致条件与中性-中性条件的反应时之差测量抽离偏向,探讨积极情绪究竟促进投入偏向,还是促进抽离偏向。结果表明:(1)相比中性组,积极情绪组并没有表现出更大的中性-中性条件和一致条件的反应时之差。这说明,积极情绪没有促进投入注意至积极刺激的偏向;(2)相比中性情绪组,积极情绪组的不一致条件与中性-中性条件的反应时之差更大。这说明,积极情绪促进从积极刺激抽离注意更少的偏向。由此,积极情绪并不促进投入注意至积极刺激的偏向,而是促进对积极刺激的抽离偏向。

关键词: 积极情绪状态, 积极情绪刺激, 注意偏向, 注意投入, 注意抽离