Task 4 Affect-driven attention and memory bias Flashcards
Influence of affect on attention
- particular mood states induce an attentional cognitive bias –> mood-relevant material is prioritized by processing systems
- cognitive bias influences
a) ongoing mood state
b) propensity of experiences and related emotions
–> attention to neg. stimuli is increased in sad people and attention to neg. stimuli is decreased in happy people
Affect and how it influences attention and perception
- affect: provides sense of value/importance of things –> modulates perception and attention by privileging stimuli that are especially emotionally relevant
- affect influences selective attention and perception through sensory processing (what/how we perceive) and attentional relocation (how we perceive things based on what we pay attention to)
Behavioural tasks used to study attentional processing of affective stimuli: Visual search task
- visual search: how quick can someone detect a stimulus
- with faces: pop-out effect
findings:
- neg. stimuli induce attentional bias to greater extend than pos. stimuli –> threat-superiority effect: people are faster at picking out angry faces rel. to happy/sad faces –> bias towards threatening stimuli
Behavioural tasks used to study attentional processing of affective stimuli: Interference task
interference task: presence of fear-related stimuli leads to reduction in performance
modified stroop task
- coloured words and pps need to say colour instead of reading out word –> modification: words vary in valence
findings:
a. people take longer to name colours of neg. rel. to pos. words –> neg. words lead to reduction of performance (attention is caught by the neg. word)
Behavioural tasks used to study attentional processing of affective stimuli: Gabor stimuli task
- fearful/neutral face is presented in centre of Gabor stimuli
- pps are asked to name oreintation of gabor stimuli
findings:
a. after presentation of fearful face: contrast of gabor stimuli could be lower for pps to name orientation => enhanced perception after salient affective stimulus
Conclusions from fMRI / ERP studies about influence of affect on attention-perception or sensory processes
- sensory cortex: enhanced activity for threat stimuli even if not attended –> emotional stimuli grab attention automatically
- amygdala: enhances activity in extrastriatal Cortex: involved in sensory processing => emotional stimuli can enhance sensory processing in absence of spatial attention (= we don’t need to directly see fearful face to be influenced by it)
By what processes does affect influence things we can remember?
- highly emotional events (especially aversive) are better remembered than neutral ones
-
arousal: level of physiological/psychological alertness
–> arousing words cause amygdala activation and non-arousing words cause PFC activation - valence: pleasantness/unpleasantness of an event
How does a person’s intrinsic mood state influence memory and on what stage of memory processing does it have a pos. or neg. influence?
- person’s mood influences encoding, consolidation AND retrieval of memory: initial representation of an event is influenced by affect (arousal, valence, congruency of event with mood at event and mood during retrieval)
- mood congruency effect: individual’s attention towards mood-congruent stimuli is improved –> improved encoding of mood-congruent events
- emotionally arousing events are also more likely to be rehearsed and consolidated into LTM
- retrieval might be enhanced if there is a match between an individual’s mood at encoding and retrieving (mood-dependent memory)
Are positive and negative moods associated with different memory information processing strategies?
- Pos. affective states: induce information processing through assimilation: active cognitive elaboration of stimuli
- Neg. affective states: induce information processing through accomodation: focusing on external demadns of the world
–> individuals in good mood tend to be more creative and use top-down processing styles and individuals in bad mood tend to engage in systematic evaluation of information –> less likely to commit memory errors
Associative network model
- proposition: affective experiences become linked rto contexual information present during encoding –> forming associations in memory
- emotions act as retrieval cues that facilitate memory retrieval by activating associated information –> experiencing a particular emotion activates related memories and increases the accessibility of information associated with that emotion
—> emotions can enhance memory by improving retrieval of emotionally congruent information
Affect infusion model
- emphasises role of affect in guiding and influencing cognitive processes (incl. memory)
- affect can infuse cognitive processes –> shape how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved –> various mechanisms:
- attention
- allocation of cognitive resources
- affect appraisal processes
- use of strategies during encoding and retrieval
=> affect can impact memory indirectly by modulating cognitive processes involved in memory formation and retrieval
Differences between ANM and AIM
- ANM: focus on direct association between affective experiences and inforamtion encoded during experienes –> emotion = retrieval cue
- AIM: highlights broader influence of affect on cognitive processes: attention, encoding, strategies, cognitive resource allocation –> affect can shape various aspects of cognition
–> ANM: does not explain effect of motivation on mood congruent memory effects
–> AIM: specifies in which circumstances mood congruency effects are more/less likely to occur
Routes in brain by which threat-related stimuli become prioritized
A: Frontoparietal regions
- IPS, FEF –> endogenous attention
- ventral frontal cortex, tempoparietal junction –> exogenous attention
B: Amygdala
- rapid detection of relevance of stimulus for needs, goals, and values
- modulates memory processes during emotional situations
C: Hippocampus
- important for memory processes
–> Encoding: amygdala determines relevance of stimulus and modulate attention bias in frontparietal regions
–> Consolidation: amygdala sends feedback to cortical areas and modulates hippocampus = stronger consolidation
–>Retrieval: affect influences memory by modulating retrieval process
- neutral scene: increased parahippocampal activation
- emotional scene: increased amygdala activation
Iowa gambling study
Pps had to choose cards with short-term reward or long-term reward
- Pps with lesions to vmPFC chose short term reward and no skin conductance
- Healthy pps chose long-term
