Does emotion processing require attention? The effects of fear conditioning and perceptual load
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This study examined the impact of perceptual load on the processing of unattended threat-relevant faces. Participants performed a central letter-classification task while ignoring irrelevant face distractors, which appeared above or below the central task. The face distractors were graded for affective salience by means of aversive fear conditioning, with a conditioned angry face (CS+), an unconditioned angry face (CS-), and a neutral control face. The letter-classification task was presented under conditions of both low and high perceptual load. Results showed that fear conditioned (i.e., CS+) angry face distractors interfered with task performance more than CS- angry or neutral face distractors but that this interference was completely eliminated by high perceptual load. These findings demonstrate that aversively conditioned face distractors capture attention only under conditions of low perceptual load.
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Basic research suggests that the ability of threatening stimuli to capture gaze is affected by perceptual load and eccentricity.
“Basic research suggests that the ability of threatening stimuli to capture gaze is affected by how many competing stimuli are present (perceptual load; Yates et al., 2010) and how far into the periphery stimuli are presented (eccentricity; Calvo, Nummenmaa, & Hyönä, 2006).”
From Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: a meta-analytic review and synthesis (2012) · cites this paper as Yates et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Yates, A., Ashwin, C., & Fox, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Essex (GB)
- Venue
- Emotion
- Published
- 2010
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 822-830
- ISSN
- 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1516
- PMC
- PMC3491873
- OpenAlex
- W2092023364
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Open Access at Essex (University of Essex) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (076701)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- emotional processing, attention, perceptual load, fear conditioning, attentional capture, distractor interference, affective salience, angry faces
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Attention, Conditioning, Psychological, Emotions, Facial Expression, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Mental Processes, Visual Perception, Young Adult
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