ORCID Profile
0000-0003-4771-3043
Current Organisation
University of New South Wales
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Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-07-2017
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.12913
Abstract: In order to improve our understanding of the components that reflect functionally important processes during reward anticipation and consumption, we used principle components analyses (PCA) to separate and quantify averaged ERP data obtained from each stage of a modified monetary incentive delay (MID) task. Although a small number of recent ERP studies have reported that reward and loss cues potentiate ERPs during anticipation, action preparation, and consummatory stages of reward processing, these findings are inconsistent due to temporal and spatial overlap between the relevant electrophysiological components. Our results show three components following cue presentation are sensitive to incentive cues (N1, P3a, P3b). In contrast to previous research, reward-related enhancement occurred only in the P3b, with earlier components more sensitive to break-even and loss cues. During feedback anticipation, we observed a lateralized centroparietal negativity that was sensitive to response hand but not cue type. We also show that use of PCA on ERPs reflecting reward consumption successfully separates the reward positivity from the independently modulated feedback-P3. Last, we observe for the first time a new reward consumption component: a late negativity distributed over the left frontal pole. This component appears to be sensitive to response hand, especially in the context of monetary gain. These results illustrate that the time course and sensitivities of electrophysiological activity that follows incentive cues do not follow a simple heuristic in which reward incentive cues produce enhanced activity at all stages and substages.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-02-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-09-2007
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2007.00597.X
Abstract: Aggression correlates with relatively greater left than right frontal electroencephalographic activity (inverse of EEG alpha power). The present experiment extends this research by manipulating frontal asymmetry and examining its effect on aggression. Participants were assigned to increase left frontal activation or increase right frontal activation by contracting their contralateral hand. They then received insulting feedback and played a game in which they could aggress toward the person who insulted them. Right-hand contractions caused greater left than right central and frontal activation and aggression as compared to left-hand contractions. Within the right-hand contraction condition, greater relative left frontal activity was associated with greater aggression.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-04-2018
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.12879
Abstract: We review conceptual arguments and research on the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotional and motivational processes. The current article organizes and reviews research on asymmetrical frontal cortical activity by focusing on research that has measured trait (baseline) frontal asymmetry and related it to other in idual differences measures related to motivation (e.g., anger, bipolar disorder). The review also covers research that has measured state frontal asymmetry in response to situational manipulations of motivation and emotion and as an intervening variable in motivation-cognition interactions. This review concludes that much research supports the view that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with greater positively or negatively valenced approach motivation. The view that greater right than left frontal cortical activity is associated with withdrawal motivation, although supported, has received less empirical attention. In addition to reviewing research on the emotive functions of asymmetric frontal cortical activity, the reviewed research illustrates the need to consider motivational direction as separate from affective valence in conceptual models of emotional space.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-2007
DOI: 10.1111/J.1467-9280.2007.01933.X
Abstract: Guilt is widely recognized as an important self-regulatory emotion, yet alternative theoretical accounts view guilt primarily as either a punishment cue or a pro-social motivator. Integrating these views, we propose that guilt functions dynamically to first provide a negative reinforcement cue associated with reduced approach motivation, which transforms into approach-motivated behavior when an opportunity for reparation presents itself. We tested this hypothesis in the context of racial prejudice. White subjects viewed a multiracial series of faces while cortical activity was recorded using electro-encephalography. Following bogus feedback indicating anti-Black responses, subjects reported elevated guilt, which was associated with changes in frontal cortical asymmetry indicating reduced approach motivation. When subjects were presented with an opportunity to engage in prejudice-reducing behavior, guilt predicted greater interest in prejudice reduction, which in turn was associated with an approach-related shift in frontal asymmetry. The results support a dynamic model in which guilt is associated with adaptive changes in motivation and behavior.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 10-02-2012
DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780195398991.013.0006
Abstract: Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the mind and behavior, noted for its appreciation for the dynamic interactions of situational and dispositional processes as they relate to neural and biological mechanisms. In this chapter, we describe the methodological approach of social neuroscience and review research that has applied this approach to address the interplay of the person and situation in the domains of social cognition, attitudes, emotion and motivation, intergroup relations, and personality. We provide critical discussion of how neuroscience may contribute to classic questions in personality and social psychology, and we describe how the social neuroscience approach promotes the integration of dispositional and situational accounts of the mind and behavior.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-09-2012
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2012.01469.X
Abstract: Three studies investigated the effect of angering pictures on the startle eyeblink response, based on anger's unique identity as an approach-oriented negative affect. In Study 1, eyeblinks to startling noise probes during angering and neutral pictures did not differ, despite angering pictures being rated higher on arousal and anger and more negative in valence. Study 2 replicated Study 1 also, dysphoric participants exhibited potentiated eyeblinks to probes during angering pictures much like those to probes during fear/disgust stimuli. A follow-up study revealed that dysphoric participants rated angering pictures higher in fear. Study 3 again found that eyeblinks to probes during angering and neutral pictures did not differ. Taken together, these results suggest that probes during angering stimuli elicit eyeblinks much like those during neutral stimuli, perhaps due to the competing influences of arousal, valence, and motivation on the startle eyeblink reflex.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 09-10-2018
DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190224837.013.6
Abstract: Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the social mind and behavior by considering their neural and biological underpinnings. This chapter describes the methodological approach of social neuroscience and research that has applied this approach to address the interplay of the person and situation in the domains of social cognition, attitudes, emotion and motivation, intergroup relations, and personality. This chapter illustrates the contribution of neuroscience to classic questions about personality and social psychology, with an emphasis on how the social neuroscience approach promotes the integration of dispositional and situational accounts of the mind and behavior.
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2009
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Date: 2009
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2004
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0013965
Abstract: The authors review a range of evidence concerning the motivational underpinnings of anger as an affect, with particular reference to the relationship between anger and anxiety or fear. The evidence supports the view that anger relates to an appetitive or approach motivational system, whereas anxiety relates to an aversive or avoidance motivational system. This evidence appears to have 2 implications. One implication concerns the nature of anterior cortical asymmetry effects. The evidence suggests that such asymmetry reflects direction of motivational engagement (approach vs. withdrawal) rather than affective valence. The other implication concerns the idea that affects form a purely positive dimension and a purely negative dimension, which reflect the operation of appetitive and aversive motivational systems, respectively. The evidence reviewed does not support that view. The evidence is, however, consistent with a discrete-emotions view (which does not rely on dimensionality) and with an alternative dimensional approach.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2008
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCH.2007.08.004
Abstract: The behavioral activation system (BAS) dysregulation theory of bipolar disorder predicts that bipolar in iduals will show an excessive increase in approach motivation during reward striving. Building on past research showing that the left frontal cortical region is involved in approach motivation, we predicted that in iduals with bipolar disorder would evidence increased relative left frontal cortical activity in response to goal striving, particularly in response to positive challenges. Right-handed in iduals (age 18-24) with a bipolar spectrum diagnosis (n = 41) and in iduals with no major affective psychopathology (n = 53) were presented with cues indicating that, on a given trial, an easy, medium, or hard anagram (scrambled word) would be presented in 7 seconds and that they would receive money or avoid losing money for the correct solution (10 anagrams of each of the 6 types). During this preparation period, electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha power was measured and hemispheric asymmetry indexes were computed. Compared with the nonbipolar in iduals, in iduals with bipolar disorder showed greater relative left frontal cortical activation in preparation for the hard/win trials. Whereas nonbipolar in iduals showed a decrease in left frontal cortical activation from medium to hard win trials, bipolar in iduals did not. In addition, among bipolar in iduals, current self-reported activation related to greater left frontal activation to the hard/win trials. These results provide support for an integrative biopsychosocial model of bipolar disorder, BAS dysregulation theory, and suggest that relative left frontal activity, which may be involved in mania, is triggered by challenging and potentially rewarding events.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 08-2013
Abstract: Research over the last 5 decades has suggested that negative affective states narrow cognitive scope, whereas positive affective states broaden cognitive scope. An examination of this past research, however, reveals that only negative affects of high motivational intensity (e.g., fear, stress) and positive affects of low motivational intensity (e.g., gratitude, amusement) may have been examined. Consequently, over the last 5 years, research has examined positive and negative affects that are low (e.g., sadness) versus high (e.g., desire) in motivational intensity. This research has found that affects of low motivational intensity broaden cognitive scope whereas affects of high motivational intensity narrow cognitive scope, regardless of the positivity or negativity of the affective state.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0016604
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1037/0000135-001
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2008
Abstract: The action-based model of dissonance predicts that following decisional commitment, approach-oriented motivational processes occur to assist in translating the decision into effective and unconflicted behavior. Therefore, the modulation of these approach-oriented processes should affect the degree to which in iduals change their attitudes to be more consistent with the decisional commitment (spreading of alternatives). Experiment 1 demonstrated that a neurofeedback-induced decrease in relative left frontal cortical activation, which has been implicated in approach motivational processes, caused a reduction in spreading of alternatives. Experiment 2 manipulated an action-oriented mindset following a decision and demonstrated that the action-oriented mindset caused increased activation in the left frontal cortical region as well as increased spreading of alternatives. Discussion focuses on how this integration of neuroscience and dissonance theory benefits both parent literatures.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-09-2020
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.13693
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1037/0000135-000
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X19002176
Abstract: The action-based model of cognitive dissonance proposes an adaptive function for rationalization that differs from the one offered by Cushman. The one proposed by Cushman is concerned more with the cold construction of cognitions, whereas the one proposed by the action-based model is a motivated protection of a strongly held cognition.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2011.05.037
Abstract: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research suggests that the ventral striatum (VS)/nucleus accumbens, medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and broader mesocorticolimbic dopamine system mediate aspects of reward processing from expectation of reward to pleasantness experienced upon reward attainment. In parallel, research utilizing event-related potentials (ERP) indicates that the feedback negativity (FN) is sensitive to reward vs. non-reward feedback and outcome expectation. The FN has been source localized to the mPFC and dorsal striatum, and converging evidence suggests that the FN reflects reward processing in the mesocorticolimbic system. However, the extent to which ERP and fMRI measures of reward processing are correlated has yet to be explored within the same in iduals. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the convergence between fMRI (i.e., VS and mPFC) and ERP (i.e., FN) measures of reward processing in forty-two participants who completed counterbalanced fMRI and ERP sessions while performing the same monetary gambling task. For the Win>Loss comparison, fMRI activation in the mesocorticolimbic reward circuit including the VS and mPFC was positively correlated with the FN. Here, we demonstrate that monetary gains activate the VS, mPFC, caudate, amygdala, and orbital frontal cortex, enhance the FN ERP component within 300 ms post feedback, and that these measures are related. Thus, fMRI and ERP measures provide complementary information about mesocorticolimbic activity during reward processing, which may be useful in assessing pathological reward sensitivity.
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1037/0000135-004
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 10-2015
DOI: 10.1037/EMO0000068
Abstract: Asymmetric frontal cortical activity may be one key to the process linking social exclusion to jealous feelings. The current research examined the causal role of asymmetric frontal brain activity in modulating jealousy in response to social exclusion. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) over the frontal cortex to manipulate asymmetric frontal cortical activity was combined with a modified version of the Cyberball paradigm designed to induce jealousy. After receiving 15 min of tDCS, participants were excluded by a desired partner and reported how jealous they felt. Among in iduals who were excluded, tDCS to increase relative left frontal cortical activity caused greater levels of self-reported jealousy compared to tDCS to increase relative right frontal cortical activity or sham stimulation. Limitations concerning the specificity of this effect and implications for the role of the asymmetric prefrontal cortical activity in motivated behaviors are discussed.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-09-2019
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.13290
Abstract: Unlike other basic emotions, anger is relatively difficult to produce in the lab, with the most reliable methods involving elaborate and time-consuming manipulations. These factors preclude the possibility of using them for studying short-lived changes in neural activity associated with the subjective experience of anger. In this paper, we present a novel task that allows for the trial-by-trial manipulation of anger and the examination of associated ERPs. Participants completed an incentive delay task, in which accurate responses were rewarded with monetary gains (or breaking even, in a neutral condition), and inaccurate responses were punished with monetary losses. After participants received accuracy feedback, they received information that indicated the amount of money they won or lost on that trial. On a majority of trials, this amount was consistent with the feedback stimuli, while on a minority of trials this amount was inconsistent. Results indicated that participants reported the most anger after trials where goal pursuit was frustrated by monetary losses despite accurate responses. P3b litudes were greater for inconsistent outcomes than consistent outcomes, regardless of whether these resulted in unexpected gains or frustrating losses. On frustrating trials, P3b litudes were positively correlated with self-reported anger. The same correlation was not observed for trials with stimuli that signaled surprise gains. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-02-2015
DOI: 10.1007/S00429-014-0725-9
Abstract: Ventral striatal activation measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and feedback negativity litude measured with event-related potentials (ERPs) are each enhanced during reward processing. Recent research has found that these two neural measures of reward processing are also related to one another, such that increases in ventral striatal activity are accompanied by increases in the litude of the feedback negativity. Although there is a long history of research implicating the midbrain dopamine system in reward processing, there has been little research into the possibility that structural variability in the midbrain may be linked to functional variability in reward reactivity. Here, we used structural MRI to measure midbrain volumes in addition to fMRI and ERP measures of functional neural reactivity to rewards in a simple gambling task. The results suggest that as midbrain volumes increase, fMRI reward reactivity in the ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex also increases. A similar relationship exists between midbrain structure and the litude of the feedback negativity further, this relationship is mediated specifically by activity in the ventral striatum. These data demonstrate convergence between neuroanatomical, hemodynamic, and electrophysiological measures. Thus, structural variability in the midbrain relates to variability in fMRI and ERP measures of functional reward reactivity, which may play a critical role in reward-related psychopathologies and the treatment of these disorders.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1037/A0021238
Abstract: We examined relationships among in idual differences in trait emotions and the emotion-modulated startle-eyeblink response. In particular, we examined the extent to which trait anger, which is negative in valence, would be associated with a pattern of approach motivation in startle eyeblink responses to appetitive stimuli. Self-reported trait emotions were compared with emotion-modulated startle eyeblink responses to auditory probes during appetitive, aversive, and neutral pictures. Results revealed that trait anger, enjoyment, and surprise were each associated with greater blink inhibition to appetitive pictures, indicating an approach motivational response. No other trait emotions were associated with startle eyeblink responses to appetitive or aversive pictures. These results support the idea that trait anger, although experienced as a negative emotion, is associated with an approach-related motivational response to appetitive stimuli at basic, reflexive levels of processing.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2008
DOI: 10.1080/17470910701612736
Abstract: The present study sought to extend past research on frontal brain asymmetry and in idual differences by examining relationships of in idual differences in behavioral inhibition/approach system (BIS/BAS) sensitivity with asymmetrical frontal event-related brain responses to startle probes presented during viewing of affective pictures. One hundred and ten participants were shown unpleasant, neutral, and pleasant affective pictures, and presented startle probes during picture presentations. In idual differences in BIS sensitivity related to relatively greater right frontal N100 litude to startle probes presented during pleasant and unpleasant pictures, whereas in idual differences in BAS sensitivity related to reduced left frontal P300 litude to startle probes presented during pleasant pictures. The results of this study suggest that BIS sensitivity is related to greater relative right frontal cortical activity during affective states, while BAS sensitivity is related to greater relative left frontal cortical activity during appetitive states.
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Date: 2017
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 11-04-2023
Abstract: The current research examined whether the perception of evil intentions by the conspirators influences conspiracy beliefs. Study 1 manipulated texts describing the death of convicted sex offender Jeffry Epstein to be either low or high in conspiratorial information. Study 2 manipulated texts describing a fictional country’s contested election to be either low or high in potentially conspiratorial information. Both studies revealed that the conspiratorial texts increased conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, both studies revealed that perceptions of evil mediated the effect of the conspiratorial/entertaining text on conspiracy beliefs. These results add to a growing body of work on conspiracy beliefs and suggest that perceiving that the conspirators acted with evil intentions plays an important role in conspiracy beliefs.
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 15-11-2022
Abstract: The present research aimed to better understand in idual differences in attitudes towards emotions with a focus on anger. We report findings of four studies conducted with American and Polish in iduals. Results showed that in iduals who have more positive attitudes toward anger are higher in trait anger (Studies 1- 4), are more likely to think about getting revenge (Study 1), and expect that getting revenge will make them feel good (Studies 1 - 2). In addition, these in iduals are lower in agreeableness and lower in the tendency to engage in avoidance when angered (Studies 1 - 4). They score lower in humility (Studies 3 - 4), lower in secure romantic attachment but higher in anxious and avoidance attachment (Study 3). Finally, they are more likely to believe a wide range of conspiracies (Studies 2 - 4). Discussion focuses on the implications of these results.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2003
Abstract: The present research tested whether relative left midfrontal cortical activity would be greater when in iduals believed they could engage in behaviour to ameliorate an anger-inducing situation as compared to when they believed they could do nothing. The research also examined whether relative left midfrontal cortical activity would relate to behaviors aimed at ameliorating the anger-inducing situation, when in iduals believed they could do something. To test these primary hypotheses, university students who were opposed to a tuition increase at their university were exposed to a pilot radio editorial that argued for increased tuition, and their electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, self-reported emotions, and behavioural responses were then collected. Prior to hearing the editorial, participants were led to believe that the tuition increase would definitely occur or that the tuition increase may occur and that petitions were being circulated to attempt to prevent it. Results supported the primary hypotheses and also revealed that relative left midfrontal activity was associated with anger in response to the editorial and that the effects were specific to the midfrontal cortical regions.
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2002
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2003
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2020
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 13-10-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0275990
Abstract: The present research was designed to test predictions derived from the action-based model of cognitive dissonance theory. These predictions were that dissonance arousal would be negatively related to effective behavior, and that dissonance reduction would be positively related to effective behavior. Dissonance arousal and reduction were measured using an in idual differences questionnaire. Effective behavior was measured as amount of physical exercise obtained from an exercise app that measures exercise using GPS (cycling kilometers over one year Study 1) and from self-reports (number of days during the previous week Study 2–3). Results suggested that in idual differences in dissonance arousal relate to less exercise and that in idual differences in dissonance reduction relate to more exercise. Statistically controlling for trait approach and avoidance motivation as well as satisfaction with life revealed that dissonance processes predicted exercise behavior over these traits. This pattern of results was generally consistent across the three studies. Moreover, results from Studies 2–3 suggested possible statistical mediators from the exercise commitment literature of the relationship between trait dissonance arousal/reduction and exercise behavior. These results highlight the importance of considering dissonance processes as adaptive ones, and they suggest possible ways of increasing exercise behavior.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2008.11.002
Abstract: Asymmetrical frontal cortical activity at resting baseline relates to important aspects of personality and psychopathology. However, some research has failed to replicate these relationships, perhaps because of situational influences. The present research investigates two situational variables, circadian and seasonal variability. These variables affect basal cortisol levels and mood, which have also been found to relate to resting asymmetrical frontal activity. Results of two correlational studies revealed that relative right frontal activity was greatest during fall mornings. These results suggest the importance of assessing time of day (TOD) and time of year (TOY) effects on resting frontal EEG asymmetry, which could reflect circadian and seasonal influences, but also selection effects when participants are free to select among study session times.
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1037/0000135-012
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 10-2016
DOI: 10.1037/EMO0000216
Abstract: Psychological research often yields null results on self-reported emotion as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), even when using manipulations that might intuitively be expected to be emotionally impactful. Three studies reported here support the hypothesis that changes in self-reported negative emotion may be detected more sensitively when discrete emotions are measured rather than by either PANAS NA or a measure created by combining discrete emotions, and when participants were instructed to report how they felt during an emotion-eliciting event versus how they felt afterward. In Study 1, emotion was manipulated with disgusting photographs, in Study 2, with recall of social exclusion/inclusion, and in Study 3, with reminders of personal mortality. Discussion focuses on implications for detecting emotional changes in psychological research, and the inadvisability of interpreting null results on an insensitive measure as indicating that emotional changes did not occur. (PsycINFO Database Record
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2012
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1467-9280.2009.02302.X
Abstract: Positive affects high in approach motivational intensity narrow attention. The present study extended this recent finding by testing whether a neural activation associated with approach-motivation intensity—relative left frontal-central activity—would underlie the effect of appetitive stimuli on narrowed attention (as measured by local attentional bias). It also tested whether in idual differences in approach motivation relate to this attentional narrowing. Results supported predictions, suggesting a common association of relative left frontal hemispheric processing for approach-motivational processes and narrowed attention.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2002
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUROIMAGE.2011.09.040
Abstract: An important aspect of the fear response is the allocation of spatial attention toward threatening stimuli. This response is so powerful that modulations in spatial attention can occur automatically without conscious awareness. Functional neuroimaging research suggests that the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) form a network involved in the rapid orienting of attention to threat. A hyper-responsive attention bias to threat is a common component of anxiety disorders. Yet, little is known of how in idual differences in underlying brain morphometry relate to variability in attention bias to threat. Here, we performed two experiments using dot-probe tasks that measured in iduals' attention bias to backward masked fearful faces. We collected whole-brain structural magnetic resonance images and used voxel-based morphometry to measure brain morphometry. We tested the hypothesis that reduced gray matter within the amygdala and ACC would be associated with reduced attention bias to threat. In Experiment 1, we found that backward masked fearful faces captured spatial attention and that elevated attention bias to masked threat was associated with greater ACC gray matter volumes. In Experiment 2, this association was replicated in a separate s le. Thus, we provide initial and replicating evidence that ACC gray matter volume is correlated with biased attention to threat. Importantly, we demonstrate that variability in affective attention bias within the healthy population is associated with ACC morphometry. This result opens the door for future research into the underlying brain morphometry associated with attention bias in clinically anxious populations.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2013.06.001
Abstract: Past research associated relative left frontal cortical activity with positive affect and approach motivation, or the urge to move toward a stimulus. Less work has examined relative left frontal activity and positive emotions ranging from low to high approach motivation, to test whether positive affects that differ in approach motivational intensity influence relative left frontal cortical activity. Participants in the present experiment adopted determination (high approach positive), satisfaction (low approach positive), or neutral facial expressions while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded. Next, participants completed a task measuring motivational persistence behavior and then they completed self-report emotion questionnaires. Determination compared to satisfaction and neutral facial expressions caused greater relative left frontal activity relative to baseline EEG recordings. Facial expressions did not directly influence task persistence. However, relative left frontal activity correlated positively with persistence on insolvable tasks in the determination condition. These results extend embodiment theories and motivational interpretations of relative left frontal activity.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 18-03-2011
DOI: 10.1093/SCAN/NSR012
Publisher: Psychology Press
Date: 12-04-2004
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2014
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 14-01-2011
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 05-2002
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-09-2015
DOI: 10.1002/WCS.1370
Abstract: A growing body of evidence suggests that certain facial expressions and postures are associated with emotional and motivational responses. This review discusses behavioral, neuroscientific, and cognitive research connecting these bodily movements with emotive responses. General bodily feedback theories of emotion have suggested that manipulated facial expressions and postures influence emotive reactions to stimuli as well as physiological responses such as heart rate, skin conductance, and the temperature of blood entering the brain. More recent evidence suggests that manipulated bodily states influence prefrontal cortical activation and amygdala activation. Even further evidence has suggested that manipulated bodily states influence cognitive processes, such as the speed at which in iduals read emotional content, the speed at which they classify information as emotional, and the extent to which they determine emotional information as threatening. Bodily feedback theories may also suggest clinical applications. Bodily feedback theories of emotion therefore have generated research showing that bodily expressions play a pivotal role in our emotive experiences. WIREs Cogn Sci 2015, 6:461–473. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1370 This article is categorized under: Psychology Emotion and Motivation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2011.03.009
Abstract: We often lean toward things or people we desire. Does the converse happen as well? Does simply leaning forward increase patterns of neural activation associated with desire? Desire can be conceptualized as similar to the broader construct, approach motivation. Research has found that manipulated body postures reduce approach motivation (Harmon-Jones and Peterson, 2009 Riskind and Gotay, 1982). The present experiment tested whether leaning forward, a body posture associated with approach motivation, would increase approach motivation. We measured a pattern of neural activation associated with approach motivation, relative left frontal cortical activation, in response to pictures of appetitive (desserts) vs. neutral objects (rocks) while participants leaned forward or reclined backward. Leaning forward increased relative left frontal cortical activation to appetitive vs. neutral pictures the reclining condition produced no differences between stimuli.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2022
DOI: 10.1037/MOT0000246
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2010
DOI: 10.1037/A0019533
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0014959
Abstract: As a prototypic negative emotion, anger would seem to have little in common with positive activation, as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS D. Watson, L. A. Clark, & A. Tellegen, 1988). However, growing evidence suggests that both anger and positive affect are associated with approach motivation. This suggests the counterintuitive hypotheses that positive affect should be increased by anger-evoking situations, and that positive affect and anger should be directly correlated in such situations. Four studies tested and supported these hypotheses. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results.
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Date: 2013
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-09-2003
Abstract: Asymmetrical activity over the frontal cortex has been implicated in the experience and expression of emotions and motivations. Explanations of the research have suggested that relatively greater left frontal activity is associated with positive affect and/or approach motivation, and that relatively greater right frontal activity is associated with negative affect and/or withdrawal motivation. In past research, affective valence and motivational direction were confounded, as only positive (negative) affects that were associated with approach (withdrawal) motivation were examined. Consequently, this research is unable to address whether asymmetrical frontal activity is associated with affective valence, motivational direction, or some combination of valence and motivation. In this article, I review research on the emotion of anger, a negative emotion often associated with approach motivation, that suggests that asymmetrical frontal cortical activity is due to motivational direction and not affective valence. Methodological and theoretical implications for the study of the frontal asymmetry specifically, and for emotion and motivation more generally, are discussed.
Publisher: Psychology Press
Date: 07-01-2011
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Date: 2007
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2002
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 02-1997
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2004
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2013
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.12023
Abstract: Past research suggests that high approach-motivated positive affects narrow attentional scope and cause greater late positive potential (LPP) litudes. However, because arousal is related to motivational intensity, arousal may be responsible for these past findings. The present research investigated whether arousal, manipulated independently of affect using physical exercise, would influence attentional and LPP responses to stimuli. Results revealed that appetitive (vs. neutral) pictures evoked larger LPPs over central and left frontal regions, and caused more attentional narrowing. In idual differences in approach motivation predicted more attentional narrowing following appetitive stimuli. However, manipulated arousal did not influence attentional scope or LPPs to neutral or appetitive stimuli. Results suggest that attentional narrowing and LPPs to appetitive stimuli are related to approach motivation rather than enhanced general arousal.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.PSCYCHRESNS.2015.06.005
Abstract: Major depressive disorder is associated with lower medial prefrontal cortex volumes. The role that gender might play in moderating this relationship and what particular medial prefrontal cortex subregion(s) might be implicated is unclear. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess dorsal, ventral, and anterior cingulate regions of the medial prefrontal cortex in a normative s le of male and female adults. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) was used to measure these three variables. Voxel-based morphometry was used to test for correlations between medial prefrontal gray matter volume and depressive traits. The dorsal medial frontal cortex was correlated with greater levels of depression, but not anxiety and stress. Gender moderates this effect: in males greater levels of depression were associated with lower dorsal medial prefrontal volumes, but in females no relationship was observed. The results indicate that even within a non-clinical s le, male participants with higher levels of depressive traits tend to have lower levels of gray matter volume in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. Our finding is consistent with low dorsal medial prefrontal volume contributing to the development of depression in males. Future longitudinal work is needed to substantiate this possibility.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-02-2011
Abstract: The action-based model of dissonance and recent advances in neuroscience suggest that commitment to action should cause greater relative left frontal cortical activity. Two experiments were conducted in which electroencephalographic activity was recorded following commitment to action, operationalized with a perceived choice manipulation. Perceived high as compared to low choice to engage in the action, regardless of whether it was counterattitudinal or proattitudinal, caused greater relative left frontal cortical activity. Moreover, perceived high as compared to low choice caused attitudes to be more consistent with the action. These results broaden the theoretical reach of the action-based model by suggesting that similar neural and motivational processes are involved in attitudinal responses to counterattitudinal and proattitudinal commitments.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 05-2011
DOI: 10.1037/A0022940
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 19-06-2013
DOI: 10.1093/SCAN/NSS072
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 28-02-2013
Abstract: Anger is associated with various responses. Research on the neuroscience of anger has revealed that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with angry approach-oriented responses, such as aggression, whereas greater right than left frontal cortical activity is associated with inhibited angry responses mixed with anxiety. In the current research, we extended these past studies by manipulating asymmetric frontal cortical activity using transcranial direct current stimulation and assessing its influence on ruminative responses to an interpersonal insult. Results revealed that self-reported rumination was greatest for participants who received a manipulated increase in relative right frontal cortical activity compared with those who received either a manipulated increase in relative left frontal cortical activity or sham stimulation. Taken together with past findings, the current results suggest that anger associated with greater relative left frontal cortical activity predicts approach-oriented aggressive action, whereas anger associated with greater relative right frontal cortical activity predicts inhibited rumination.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1037/A0025300
Abstract: Testosterone has been shown to relate to power, dominance, social status, and aggression. However, no research has related situationally induced changes in testosterone to subjective emotional experience. Based on the fact that anger relates to power, dominance, social status, and aggression, we predicted that testosterone would be uniquely related to the subjective experience of anger. In this study, salivary testosterone and cortisol were measured both prior to and following an anger-inducing event. In line with predictions, anger was associated with increased testosterone but not cortisol. These results provide the first evidence of a subjective emotional experience linked with changes in testosterone.
Publisher: Guilford Publications
Date: 12-2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-1995
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2021
DOI: 10.1037/MOT0000232
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-04-2009
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2009.00794.X
Abstract: Reflexes are modulated by emotions. Much research has revealed that the startle reflexive eyeblink response is modulated by emotion, particularly in response to pictures of emotional scenes. Investigations of other reflexes are limited. Recently, research suggested that the postauricular reflex in response to a startling noise was modulated by emotion. In particular, pleasant stimuli enhanced the postauricular reflex. However, these first investigations were limited: One experiment demonstrated only a marginal difference between the pleasant stimuli and neutral stimuli and the other lacked the typical neutral scene comparison. The present experiment was designed to assess whether significant emotion versus neutral differences would occur. Results demonstrated that pleasant stimuli, regardless of arousal level, evoked larger postauricular reflex activation than neutral and unpleasant emotional stimuli.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 12-04-2013
Abstract: Cognitive processing biases, such as increased attention to threat, are gaining recognition as causal factors in anxiety. Yet, little is known about the anatomical pathway by which threat biases cognition and how genetic factors might influence the integrity of this pathway, and thus, behavior. For 40 normative adults, we reconstructed the entire amygdalo-prefrontal white matter tract (uncinate fasciculus) using diffusion tensor weighted MRI and probabilistic tractography to test the hypothesis that greater fiber integrity correlates with greater nonconscious attention bias to threat as measured by a backward masked dot-probe task. We used path analysis to investigate the relationship between brain-derived nerve growth factor genotype, uncinate fasciculus integrity, and attention bias behavior. Greater structural integrity of the amygdalo-prefrontal tract correlates with facilitated attention bias to nonconscious threat. Genetic variability associated with brain-derived nerve growth factor appears to influence the microstructure of this pathway and, in turn, attention bias to nonconscious threat. These results suggest that the integrity of amygdalo-prefrontal projections underlie nonconscious attention bias to threat and mediate genetic influence on attention bias behavior. Prefrontal cognition and attentional processing in high bias in iduals appear to be heavily influenced by nonconscious threat signals relayed via the uncinate fasciculus.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.IJPSYCHO.2017.03.001
Abstract: The balance between activity in the left and right frontal cortex, commonly referred to as asymmetric frontal cortical activity, has served as a proxy for an organism's motivational direction (i.e., approach vs. avoidance). Many studies have examined the influence of the manipulation of motivational direction on asymmetrical frontal cortical activity and found results consistent with the idea that greater relative left (right) frontal cortical activity is associated with approach (avoidance) motivation. We critically review literature employing physical (versus psychological) manipulations of frontal asymmetry using a variety of methodologies including neurofeedback training, muscular contractions, and non-invasive brain stimulation. These reviewed methods allow us to make stronger causal inferences regarding the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in approach and avoidance motivation.
Publisher: Springer New York
Date: 23-09-2014
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2020
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 08-01-2019
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-2015
Abstract: The action-based model extends the original theory of cognitive dissonance by proposing why cognitive inconsistency causes both dissonance and dissonance reduction. The model begins by assuming that many perceptions and cognitions automatically impel us to act in specific ways. It then posits that the negative affective state of dissonance is aroused not by all cognitive conflict but, specifically, when cognitions with action implications are in conflict with each other, making it difficult to act. The dissonance signals to the organism that there is a problem and that the cognitive inconsistency needs to be resolved so that behavior can occur. After presenting the action-based model, we review results from behavioral and neuroscience experiments that have tested predictions derived from it.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2008
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2008.01.011
Abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that hypomania is associated with approach motivation and activity in the left prefrontal cortex (PFC). Other research has linked left motor cortex excitability to approach motivation, suggesting the existence of connections between the motor cortex and PFC. The present research extends this work using unilateral hand contractions to manipulate contralateral cortical activity, and examining the relationship between motor cortex and PFC inter-electrode EEG coherence and hypomania. Within the right-hand contraction condition, hypomania related to greater connectivity between the left motor cortex and left PFC, relative to connectivity between the left motor cortex and right PFC. No relationships were found within the left-hand condition. The present research provides additional support for the role of the left PFC in bipolar disorder, as well as an important extension of research linking motor cortex excitability to emotion and approach motivation.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-11-2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-09-2006
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2006.00465.X
Abstract: Contractions of the left hand induce sadness and bias judgments negatively, whereas contractions of the right hand induce positive affect and assertiveness and bias judgments positively. These results have been explained as resulting from activation of right and left frontal cortices, respectively. However, no research has tested this explanation. The present experiment provided such a test by having participants contract the right or left hand while electroencephalographic activity was recorded. Results indicated that right-hand contractions produced greater left than right frontal activity, whereas left-hand contractions produced greater right than left frontal activity (inverse of alpha power). Similar activations occurred in central regions, perhaps due to mu rhythms. Moreover, as compared to left-hand contractions, right-hand contractions caused greater self-reported approach affect to a mildly positive radio editorial.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 04-09-2015
DOI: 10.1093/SCAN/NSV112
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X14001058
Abstract: Pessoa (2013) makes an impressive case that emotion, motivation, and cognition are neurally intertwined. Our commentary broadens the discussion to the functional, “mind” level. We argue that philosophical and computational considerations justify some modern “separatist” views. We highlight several psychological phenomena that illustrate independence, including affective and motivational reactions to rudimentary inputs, and the guiding role of such reactions in cognition.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-03-2018
DOI: 10.1002/9781119170174.EPCN417
Abstract: Motivation underlies much perception, cognition, and behavior. As such, it is studied from many levels of analysis within psychology and neuroscience. In this chapter, we review research and theory on the psychology of motivation from the perspective of social emotive neuroscience, which is an integrative approach involving social ersonality psychology, psychophysiology, affective neuroscience, and the study of emotions and motivation within humans. More specifically, this chapter reviews theory and research on two major dimensions of motivation: motivational intensity and motivational direction (approach/withdrawal). In particular, theory and research are reviewed that demonstrate how motivational intensity and direction are related to psychophysiological and cognitive responses. The reviewed research also considers in idual differences and bodily expressions ostures. Moreover, theory and research are reviewed that suggest that cognitive dissonance processes may be aimed at resolving motivational conflicts. This review illustrates the benefits of the integrative approach of social emotive neuroscience.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2004
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.IJPSYCHO.2007.03.020
Abstract: Building on past research that has suggested that relatively greater left frontal cortical activity is associated with approach-related anger and that in iduals who are high in trait anger are more likely to evidence angry responses, the present research tested whether in iduals high in trait anger would be more likely to evidence relatively greater left frontal cortical activity in response to anger-eliciting pictorial stimuli. In the experiment, participants were exposed to pictures intended to evoke anger, fear/disgust, positive, or neutral affective reactions. Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded continuously, and alpha power was derived from the EEG to measure cortical activity. Trait anger was measured using the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire [Buss, A.H., Perry, M., 1992. The aggression questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 452-459]. Results revealed that trait anger was positively related to greater relative left frontal cortical activity to anger-evoking pictures but not to other types of pictures.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2022
DOI: 10.1037/MOT0000263
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-06-2013
Abstract: In this concluding piece, we identify and discuss various aspects of convergence and, to a lesser degree, ergence in the ideas expressed in the contributions to this special section. These contributions emphatically illustrate that approach–avoidance motivation is integral to the scientific study of emotion. It is our hope that the articles herein will facilitate cross-talk among researchers and research traditions, and will lead to a more thorough understanding of the role of approach–avoidance motivation in emotion.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2022
DOI: 10.1037/MOT0000266
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2001
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.IJPSYCHO.2015.06.004
Abstract: The recently launched NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative aims to examine the relationship between core biobehavioral dimensions and symptom profiles that either cut across traditional disorder categories or that are unique to specific clinical phenomenon. A biobehavioral construct that has received considerable attention and that is directly relevant to the Positive Valence Systems domain of the RDoC initiative is approach motivation. One way approach motivation is frequently operationalized is left versus right frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) activity, with greater relative left frontal EEG activity reflecting increased approach motivation and decreased relative left frontal EEG activity reflecting decreased approach motivation or increased withdrawal tendencies. The objective of the present review paper is to examine the relationship between relative left frontal EEG activity and mood and anxiety related symptoms from an RDoC perspective. We first provide an overview of the approach-withdrawal motivational model of frontal EEG asymmetry. Second, we review evidence that relative left frontal EEG activity is associated with a differential risk for unipolar depression versus bipolar disorder. Third, and in line with the mission statement of the RDoC, we move beyond considering mood and anxiety disorders as unitary constructs or homogenous disorders and instead propose that in idual differences in relative left frontal EEG activity may be uniquely associated with specific symptom clusters of depression (i.e., anhedonia), hypomania/mania (i.e., symptoms characterized by excessive approach motivation), and anxiety (i.e., anxious apprehension versus anxious arousal). Identifying the relationship between relative left frontal EEG activity and specific mood and anxiety-related symptom clusters has important implications for clinical science, assessment, and treatment.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 14-01-2010
Abstract: Positive and negative affects high in motivational intensity cause a narrowing of attentional focus. In contrast, positive affects low in motivational intensity cause a broadening of attentional focus. The attentional consequences of negative affects low in motivational intensity have not been experimentally investigated. Experiment 1 compared the attentional consequences of negative affect low in motivational intensity (sadness) relative to a neutral affective state. Results indicated that low-motivation negative affect caused attentional broadening. Experiment 2 found that disgust, a high-motivation negative affect not previously investigated in attentional studies, narrowed attentional focus. These experiments support the conceptual model linking high-motivation affective states to narrowed attention and low-motivation affective states to broadened attention.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-2004
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Date: 21-11-2016
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-2008
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1037/A0018426
Abstract: Emotions influence attention and processes involved in memory. Although some research has suggested that positive affect categorically influences these processes differently than neutral affect, recent research suggests that motivational intensity of positive affective states influences these processes. The present experiments examined memory for centrally or peripherally presented information after the evocation of approach-motivated positive affect. Experiment 1 found that, relative to neutral conditions, pregoal, approach-motivated positive affect (caused by a monetary incentives task) enhanced memory for centrally presented information, whereas postgoal, low approach-motivated positive affect enhanced memory for peripherally presented information. Experiment 2 found that, relative to a neutral condition, high approach-motivated positive affect (caused by appetitive pictures) enhanced memory for centrally presented information but hindered memory for peripheral information. These results suggest a more complex relationship between positive affect and memory processes and highlight the importance of considering the motivational intensity of positive affects in cognitive processes.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1037/A0018425
Abstract: Predicated on the idea that positive affects high in approach motivation are crucial in goal-directed behaviors, research has found that these positive affects cause narrowed attention. The present research was designed to investigate a possible neurophysiological underpinning of this effect. Previous research has suggested that the late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related brain potential is increased by emotionally arousing stimuli because of the attention-grabbing nature of such stimuli. Other research has suggested that left prefrontal cortical regions are associated with narrowed attention and approach-motivated affect. Integrating these two lines of evidence, the present research examined LPPs to appetitive versus neutral pictures and assessed the relationship of these LPPs to local versus global attentional bias following the picture primes. Results revealed that appetitive in comparison with neutral pictures evoked larger LPP litudes bilaterally over central and parietal regions and asymmetrically over frontal regions. Moreover, these LPP litudes to appetitive pictures predicted greater locally biased attention caused by the appetitive pictures. These results provide the first evidence that LPPs are associated with the local attentional bias induced by appetitive motivation.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-06-2013
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-07-2019
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 13-11-2022
Abstract: The present research aimed to better understand in idual differences in attitudes towards emotions with a focus on anger. We report findings of four studies conducted with American and Polish in iduals. Results showed that in iduals who have more positive attitudes toward anger are higher in trait anger (Studies 1- 4), are more likely to think about getting revenge (Study 1), and expect that getting revenge will make them feel good (Studies 1 - 2). In addition, these in iduals are lower in agreeableness and lower in the tendency to engage in avoidance when angered (Studies 1 - 4). They score lower in humility (Studies 3 - 4), lower in secure romantic attachment but higher in anxious and avoidance attachment (Study 3). Finally, they are more likely to believe a wide range of conspiracies (Studies 2 - 4). Discussion focuses on the implications of these results.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 03-2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0015026
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 16-08-2022
Abstract: Background: Atypical inflammatory biology is gaining evidence as a risk factor for mood psychopathology however, little work has attempted to integrate inflammation into extant psychosocial frameworks of risk. Recent work using secondary data analysis has investigated the possibility of an immunocognitive model of mood disorders, in which cognitive vulnerabilities (i.e., rumination on positive or negative affect) increase the effect that arousal-related characteristics (e.g., reward sensitivity) have on inflammatory biology in ways that may confer risk for depression and hypo/mania symptoms. Project MIME (Motivation, Inflammation, and Mood in Emerging Adults) was designed to test this model in the context of a novel, reward-salient stressor (the Anger Incentive Delay Task, AIDT). Methods: This NIMH-funded study will result in a dataset of approximately 100 college undergraduates from a large university in Pennsylvania, United States of America. Eligible participants are recruited from an online screener, have to be 18-22 years old, fluent in English, and successfully answer several items designed to test whether participants randomly answer questions on the screener. Eligible participants are invited to an in-person visit in which they completed the AIDT, blood draws pre- and 50 minutes post-AIDT, and self-report questionnaires. Participants also complete a set of online questionnaires two weeks after the in-person visit.Discussion: Consistent with calls from the NIH director, this study seeks to ersify the tools used in stress research by validating a novel reward-salient stressor (in contrast to the field’s reliance on social stressors) with respect to affective and immunological stress reactivity. In addition to this methodological goal, Project MIME is the first study specifically designed to test the immunocognitive model of mood psychopathology. Given the integration of several malleable treatment targets (approach behavior, emotion regulation, inflammation) into this model, results from this study could inform comprehensive, flexible intervention strategies for mood disorder prevention and treatment.
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2016
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 05-2012
DOI: 10.1037/A0025877
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 11-06-2013
Abstract: We discuss some research that has examined approach motivational urges and how this research clarifies the definition of approach motivation. Our research and that of others have raised doubts about the commonly accepted definition of approach motivation, which views it as a positive affective state triggered by positive stimuli. We review evidence that suggests: (a) that approach motivation is occasionally evoked by negative stimuli (b) that approach motivation may be experienced as a negative state and (c) that stimuli are unnecessary to evoke approach motivation.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2011
DOI: 10.1037/A0024951
Abstract: The present work outlines a theory of attitudes toward emotions, provides a measure of attitudes toward emotions, and then tests several predictions concerning relationships between attitudes toward specific emotions and emotional situation selection, emotional traits, emotional reactivity, and emotion regulation. The present conceptualization of in idual differences in attitudes toward emotions focuses on specific emotions and presents data indicating that 5 emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear, and disgust) load on 5 separate attitude factors (Study 1). Attitudes toward emotions predicted emotional situation selection (Study 2). Moreover, attitudes toward approach emotions (e.g., anger, joy) correlated directly with the associated trait emotions, whereas attitudes toward withdrawal emotions (fear, disgust) correlated inversely with associated trait emotions (Study 3). Similar results occurred when attitudes toward emotions were used to predict state emotional reactivity (Study 4). Finally, attitudes toward emotions predicted specific forms of emotion regulation (Study 5).
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-08-2019
DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1514293
Abstract: The field of cognition and emotion has grown considerably over the past 30 years, with an increased emphasis on the relationships between emotional and motivational components and how they contribute to basic perceptual, cognitive, and neural processes. For instance, research has revealed that emotion often influences these processes via emotion's relationship with motivational dimensions, as when positive emotions low versus high in approach motivational intensity have different influences on attentional and other cognitive processes. Research has also revealed that motivational direction (approach vs. withdrawal) and affective valence (positive vs. negative) are not as closely related as once was theorised that is, positive affect is not inevitably associated with approach motivation and negative affect is not inevitably associated with withdrawal motivation. These and other lines of research with anger have suggested that the field needs to move beyond a focus on affective valence and it needs to consider an integration of dimensional and discrete models of emotion. The article also includes some suggestions for improving methods of measuring and inducing emotions and some recommendations for future researchers.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.12786
Abstract: The reward positivity (RewP) and the stimulus preceding negativity (SPN), two ERPs associated with reward delivery and reward anticipation, are modulated by motivational intensity. Motivational intensity is the effort organisms would make to exert behaviors, and it varies with the difficulty of exerting that behavior. If a task is perceived as impossible, which means that one does not have control over own outcomes, motivational intensity is low. In the current study, we tested the prediction that perceiving control over one's outcomes increases both the RewP to feedback and the SPN prior to feedback compared to perceiving no control. We also examined whether P300 and LPP litudes to reward and nonreward images were similarly modulated. Twenty-five female participants completed a gambling task in which correct choices were followed by pictures of attractive men and incorrect choices were followed by pictures of rocks. To manipulate perceived control, participants were told that, in one block of trials, they could learn a mouse-click rule in order to see only pictures of men (high perceived control condition), while in the other block, the pictures would appear randomly (low perceived control condition). However, in both conditions, feedback appeared randomly. Although the RewP was elicited in both blocks, the RewP and SPN were higher in the high perceived control condition (i.e., when participants thought that they could influence their outcomes). Perceived control did not modulate the P300 and LPP to pictures. The results suggest that approach motivation and its intensity modulate the processing of performance feedback.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 08-08-2016
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2001
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Date: 1999
DOI: 10.1037/10318-000
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2008
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.TICS.2012.04.002
Abstract: It has been repeatedly shown that, when people have experiences that are inconsistent with their expectations, they engage in a variety of compensatory efforts. Although there have been many superficially different accounts for these behaviors, a potentially unifying inconsistency compensation perspective is currently coalescing. Following from a common prediction error/conflict monitoring mechanism, any given inconsistency is understood as evoking a common syndrome of aversive arousal. In turn, this aversive arousal is understood to motivate palliative efforts, which manifest as the analogous compensation behaviors reported within different psychological literatures. Based on this perspective, compensation efforts following both 'high-level' (e.g., attitudinal dissonance) and 'low-level' (e.g., Stroop task color/word mismatches) inconsistencies can now be understood in terms of a common motivational account.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2008
DOI: 10.1002/EJSP.399
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2008
DOI: 10.1111/J.1467-9280.2008.02112.X
Abstract: Research has found that positive affect broadens attention. However, these studies have manipulated positive affect that is low in approach motivation. Positive affect that is high in approach motivation should reduce the breadth of attention, as organisms shut out irrelevant stimuli as they approach desired objects. Four studies examined the attentional consequences of approach-motivated positive-affect states. Results were consistent with predictions. Participants showed less global attentional focus after viewing high-approach-motivating positive stimuli than after viewing low-approach-motivating positive stimuli (Study 1) or neutral stimuli (Study 2). Study 3 found that greater trait approach motivation resulted in less global attentional focus after participants viewed approach-motivating positive stimuli. Study 4 manipulated affect and approach motivation independently. Greater approach-motivated positive affect caused lower global focus. High-approach-motivated positive affect reduces global attentional focus, whereas low-approach-motivated positive affect increases global attentional focus. Incorporating the intensity of approach motivation into models of positive affect broadens understanding of the consequences of positive affect.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2010
DOI: 10.1037/A0019809
Abstract: Research has uncovered that positive affect broadens cognitive categorization. The motivational dimensional model, however, posits that positive affect is not a unitary construct with only one cognitive consequence. Instead, this model puts forth that there are different positive affects varying in approach motivational intensity. According to this model, only positive affects lower in motivational intensity should broaden cognitive processes, whereas positive affects higher in motivational intensity should narrow cognitive processes. Consistent with these predictions, high approach positive affect has been shown to narrow attention, whereas low approach positive affect has been shown to broaden it (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008). High approach positive affect, therefore, might narrow categorization. Two experiments investigated this possibility by having participants respond to cognitive categorization tasks in 3 body postures designed to elicit different levels of approach motivation: reclining backward, which should evoke low approach motivation sitting upright, which should evoke moderate approach motivation and leaning forward, which should evoke high approach motivation. Participants smiled while in each posture in order to experience positive affect. Experiment 1 provided initial support for the idea that high approach positive affect narrows categorization and low approach positive affect broadens categorization. Experiment 2 replicated these findings with improved smiling instructions. These results extend previous work by showing that the motivational model's predictions hold for basic attentional processes as well as higher level cognitive processes such as categorization.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUBIOREV.2013.07.013
Abstract: According to the frontal cortical asymmetry model of motivational direction, anger and aggression are associated with approach motivation and a dominant left frontal hemisphere. Functional interhemispheric connectivity has been proposed as a possible mechanism that could explain the frontal cortical asymmetry of anger and aggression. Reciprocal interactions between the cerebral hemispheres are primarily established by the corpus callosum which is the largest white matter bundle of the human brain. Experimental brain research has now provided evidence for callosal involvement in approach-motivation. In line with the frontal cortical asymmetry model of motivational direction, differences in the direction of interhemispheric signal transfer are proposed to contribute to anger and aggression. It is concluded that the human corpus callosum provides a possible neuroanatomical correlate for frontal cortical asymmetries and that interhemispheric signal transfer plays a role in the emergence of approach-related motivation and behaviour.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-08-2016
DOI: 10.1111/JOPY.12267
Abstract: Agreeable in iduals report more intense withdrawal-oriented negative emotions across aversive situations. Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory depletion (i.e., ego depletion) moderates the relationship between trait Agreeableness and negative emotional responding. Ego depletion was manipulated using a writing task. Emotional responding was measured with startle eye-blink responses (Study 1, N = 71) and self-reported valence, arousal, and empathic concern (Study 2, N = 256) during emotional picture viewing. Trait Agreeableness was measured using a questionnaire. In Study 1, Agreeableness predicted especially large startle responses during aversive images and especially small startles during appetitive images. After exercising self-control, the relationship between startle magnitudes and Agreeableness decreased. In Study 2, Agreeableness predicted more empathic concern for aversive images, which in turn predicted heightened self-reported negative emotions. After exercising self-control, the relationship between Agreeableness and empathic concern decreased. Agreeable in iduals exhibit heightened negative emotional responding. Ego depletion reduced the link between Agreeableness and negative emotional responding in Study 1 and moderated the indirect effect of Agreeableness on negative emotional responding via empathic concern in Study 2. Empathic concern appears to be a resource-intensive process underlying heightened responding to aversive stimuli among agreeable persons.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-02-2012
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 10-2009
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 30-11-2009
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2012
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2012.01395.X
Abstract: Depression, diminished positive affect, and exaggerated negative affect have all been linked to right frontal cortical asymmetry as measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Emerging evidence, however, suggests that right frontal EEG asymmetry might be linked to empathic responding. EEG was used to assess baseline asymmetries in frontal brain activity. Participants viewed images associated with a charity and then rated their sadness, personal distress, perspective-taking, and empathic concern towards the images. We found that baseline measures of right frontal asymmetry were a significant predictor of empathic concern, a relationship that was mediated by feelings of sadness. These results provide a more complex view of right frontal asymmetry and suggest that this pattern of brain activity might facilitate sensitivity towards the suffering of others.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 02-2007
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2004
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-2012
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-2006
DOI: 10.1111/J.1467-9280.2006.01724.X
Abstract: Past research using a variety of methods has suggested that the frontal cortex is asymmetrically involved in the experience and expression of positive (or approach motivational) and negative (or withdrawal motivational) affects, with the left frontal region being involved in positive affects (or approach) and the right frontal region being involved in negative affects (or withdrawal). However, some studies have failed to replicate these effects, leaving many scientists questioning the meaning of the past supportive findings. To examine these inconsistencies in results, we tested the hypothesis that increasing the personal relevance of the stimuli and approach motivational intensity would increase relative left frontal activation. Results supported the predictions. Moreover, by showing the predicted effects with anger-inducing stimuli, the results demonstrated that motivational direction, rather than affective valence, accounts for asymmetrical frontal cortical activity.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2020
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1037/A0025611
Abstract: Decades of research have suggested that all positive affective states broaden attention. Recent studies have found that positive affects high in approach motivation narrow attention, whereas positive affects low in approach motivation broaden attention. However, these studies were limited because they used only affective pictures to manipulate positive affect. The pictures, rather than the affective states created by them, may have caused in iduals to focus on the emotional details of the picture, and this attentional focus may have caused the narrowing of attentional scope. Moreover, no experiment has yet to examine both low and high approach-motivated positive affect within the same in iduals in the same study. The current experiments manipulated pregoal (high approach) and postgoal (low approach) positive states by giving participants the opportunity to win money on a game. Results revealed that pregoal positive affect caused a narrowing of attention, whereas postgoal positive affect caused a broadening of attention.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 06-2006
DOI: 10.1093/SCAN/NSL002
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0016061
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2009.08.010
Abstract: Conceptual and empirical approaches to the study of the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in emotional processes are reviewed. Although early research suggested that greater left than right frontal cortical activity was associated with positive affect, more recent research, primarily on anger, suggests that greater left than right frontal cortical activity is associated with approach motivation, which can be positive (e.g., enthusiasm) or negative in valence (e.g., anger). In addition to reviewing this research on anger, research on guilt, bipolar disorder, and various types of positive affect is reviewed with relation to their association with asymmetric frontal cortical activity. The reviewed research not only contributes to a more complete understanding of the emotive functions of asymmetric frontal cortical activity, but it also points to the importance of considering motivational direction as separate from affective valence in psychological models of emotional space.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2012.02.006
Abstract: Decades of research has shown the influence of emotion on attentional capture, and more recently, the influence of emotion on neurophysiological processes related to attentional capture. The current research tested whether some of the earliest neurophysiological underpinnings of emotive attentional processes can be influenced by attentional manipulations of broadening versus narrowing. Previous research has shown that negative affects high in motivational intensity (e.g., disgust, fear) cause a relative narrowing of attentional scope (Gable and Harmon-Jones, 2010a Easterbrook, 1959). Because of the strong link between motivation and attention, attentional scope should also influence the attentional capture of negative stimuli. The current study manipulated a local attentional scope or global attentional scope, then measured attentional capture towards disgust and neutral pictures using the N1 event-related potential component. Results revealed that a manipulated global attentional scope reduced N1 litude towards disgust pictures compared to a manipulated local attentional scope.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2011.02.007
Abstract: Positive affects vary in the degree with which they are associated with approach motivation, the drive to approach an object or a goal. High approach-motivated positive affects cause a narrowing of attention, whereas low approach-motivated positive affects causes a broadening of attention. The current study was designed to extend this work by examining whether the relationship between motivation and attentional bias was bi-directional. Specifically, the experiment investigated whether a manipulated local attentional scope would cause greater approach motivational processing than a global attentional scope as measured by neural processes as early as 100 ms. As compared to a global attentional scope, a local attentional scope caused greater neural processing associated with approach motivation as measured by the N1 to appetitive pictures.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2003
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2016
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1037/A0025170
Abstract: Threat signals facilitate spatial attention, even when awareness of these signals has been restricted through the use of backward masking. However, unrestricted/unmasked threat cues tend to delay the disengagement of attention, whereas restricted/masked threat facilitates orienting, suggesting different underlying mechanisms. Within the general population, the serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5HTTLPR) is associated with one's allocation of attention to unmasked threat signals. However, it is unclear to what extent the 5HTTLPR gene may be involved in nonconscious biases to masked threat, and whether or not such biases are driven by facilitated orienting or delayed disengagement. Participants were genotyped and performed a dot-probe task with backward masked fearful and neutral faces. Results indicate that short-allele carriers of the 5HTTLPR gene nonconsciously orient spatial attention to masked fearful faces. On the other hand, homozygous long-allele in iduals tended to direct attention away from masked fearful faces. All participants' performance was at chance in a posttask assessment of awareness for the masked faces. The results add to current literature on the 5HTTLPR and attention biases, and suggest that threat signals facilitate the orienting of attention in short-allele carriers of the 5HTTLPR gene even under restricted processing conditions.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1037/A0014117
Abstract: Because of the difficulties surrounding the evocation of jealousy, past research has relied on reactions to hypothetical scenarios and recall of past experiences of jealousy. Both methodologies have limitations, however. The present research was designed to develop a method of evoking jealousy in the laboratory that would be well controlled, ethically permissible, and psychologically meaningful. Study 1 demonstrated that jealousy could be evoked in a modified version of K. D. Williams' (2007) Cyberball ostracism paradigm in which the rejecting person was computer-generated. Study 2, the first to examine neural activity during the active experience of jealousy, tested whether experienced jealousy was associated with greater relative left or right frontal cortical activation. The findings revealed that the experience of jealousy was correlated with greater relative left frontal cortical activation toward the "sexually" desired partner. This pattern of activation suggests that jealousy is associated with approach motivation. Taken together, the present studies developed a laboratory paradigm for the study of jealousy that should help foster research on one of the most social of emotions.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2009
DOI: 10.1002/EJSP.541
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-04-2018
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-01-2023
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2009
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2008
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2010
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.BIOPSYCHO.2012.04.001
Abstract: Past research suggested that the motivational significance of images influences reflexive and electrocortical responses to those images (Briggs and Martin, 2009 Gard et al., 2007 Schupp et al., 2004), with erotica often exerting the largest effects for appetitive pictures (Grillon and Baas, 2003 Weinberg and Hajcak, 2010). This research paradigm, however, compares responses to different types of images (e.g., erotica vs. exciting sports scenes). This past motivational interpretation, therefore, would be further supported by experiments wherein appetitive picture content is held constant and motivational states are manipulated with a different method. In the present experiment, we tested the hypothesis that changes in physical postures associated with approach motivation influences reflexive and electrocortical responses to appetitive stimuli. Past research has suggested that bodily manipulations (e.g., facial expressions) play a role in emotion- and motivation-related physiology (Ekman and Davidson, 1993 Levenson et al., 1990). Extending these results, leaning forward (associated with a heightened urge to approach stimuli) relative to reclining (associated with less of an urge to approach stimuli) caused participants to have smaller startle eyeblink responses during appetitive, but not neutral, picture viewing. Leaning relative to reclining also caused participants to have larger LPPs to appetitive but not neutral pictures, and influenced ERPs as early as 100ms into stimulus viewing. This evidence suggests that body postures associated with approach motivation causally influence basic reflexive and electrocortical reactions to appetitive emotive stimuli.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2020
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-2011
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-06-2015
DOI: 10.1111/PSYP.12460
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1037/A0022744
Abstract: Friedman and Förster (2010) reviewed an extensive program of research that was consistent with the view that positive affective states broaden, whereas negative affective states narrow, the scope of attention. We applaud their creative investigations into these important psychological questions and appreciate their thorough review. However, recent evidence strongly suggests that the conclusions drawn by Friedman and Förster need to be tempered, for the recent evidence suggests that motivational intensity rather than affective valence causes the modulations of attentional tuning. That is, affective states of low motivational intensity (e.g., sadness, postgoal positive affect) broaden attention, whereas affective states of high motivational intensity (e.g., disgust, pregoal positive affect) narrow attention. Our viewpoint is that attentional narrowing occurs during affective states of high motivational intensity to aid organisms in acquiring desirable objects and avoiding aversive ones. Attentional broadening occurs during affective states of low motivational intensity to open organisms to new opportunities.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-01-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1467-6494.2009.00609.X
Abstract: The psychobiological basis of reactive aggression, a condition characterized by uncontrolled outbursts of socially violent behavior, is unclear. Nonetheless, several theoretical models have been proposed that may have complementary views about the psychobiological mechanisms involved. In this review, we attempt to unite these models and theorize further on the basis of recent data from psychological and neuroscientific research to propose a comprehensive neuro-evolutionary framework: The Triple Imbalance Hypothesis (TIH) of reactive aggression. According to this model, reactive aggression is essentially subcortically motivated by an imbalance in the levels of the steroid hormones cortisol and testosterone (Subcortical Imbalance Hypothesis). This imbalance not only sets a primal predisposition for social aggression, but also down-regulates cortical-subcortical communication (Cortical-Subcortical Imbalance Hypothesis), hence diminishing control by cortical regions that regulate socially aggressive inclinations. However, these bottom-up hormonally mediated imbalances can drive both instrumental and reactive social aggression. The TIH suggests that reactive aggression is differentiated from proactive aggression by low brain serotonergic function and that reactive aggression is associated with left-sided frontal brain asymmetry (Cortical Imbalance Hypothesis), especially observed when the in idual is socially threatened or provoked. This triple biobehavioral imbalance mirrors an evolutionary relapse into violently aggressive motivational drives that are adaptive among many reptilian and mammalian species, but may have become socially maladaptive in modern humans.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 04-2011
DOI: 10.1093/SCAN/NSQ027
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2004
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 08-2012
DOI: 10.1037/A0028973
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-11-2008
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2007.00627.X
Abstract: Experiments examining asymmetrical frontal activity in response to affective pictures have produced inconsistent results. These inconsistencies may have occurred because the pictorial stimuli may not have evoked strong emotional or motivational tendencies for all in iduals. In the current study, participants were asked to indicate their liking for dessert and the time since they had last eaten to assess in idual differences in emotion and motivation. Then, they were shown dessert pictures or neutral pictures while EEG activity was recorded. Results indicated that the in idual differences predicted greater left than right frontal activity (inverse of the alpha power) within the first second as well as all 12 s of viewing of the dessert pictures.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 2015
Publisher: Hogrefe Publishing Group
Date: 2007
Abstract: Abstract. Research and theoretical developments on the theory of cognitive dissonance are reviewed. After considering the self-consistency, self-affirmation, and aversive consequences revisions, the authors review research that has challenged each of the revisions and that supports the original version of the theory. Then, the authors review the action-based model of dissonance, which accepts the original theory's proposal that a sufficient cognitive inconsistency causes dissonance and extends the original theory by proposing why cognitive inconsistency prompts dissonance. Finally, the authors present results from experiments examining predictions derived from the action-based model and neural processes involved in dissonance reduction.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2012
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 14-05-2020
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 12-2022
DOI: 10.1037/MOT0000270
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 07-2015
DOI: 10.1037/A0039226
Abstract: For the last 50 years, research investigating the effect of emotions on scope of cognitive processing was based on models proposing that affective valence determined cognitive scope. More recently, our motivational intensity model suggests that this past work had confounded valence with motivational intensity. Research derived from this model supports the idea that motivational intensity, rather than affective valence, explains much of the variance emotions have on cognitive scope. However, the motivational intensity model is limited in that the empirical work has examined only positive affects high in approach and negative affects high in avoidance motivation. Thus, perhaps only approach-positive and avoidance-negative states narrow cognitive scope. The present research was designed to clarify these conceptual issues by examining the effect of anger, a negatively valenced approach-motivated state, on cognitive scope. Results revealed that anger narrowed attentional scope relative to a neutral state and that attentional narrowing to anger was similar to the attentional narrowing caused by high approach-motivated positive affects (Study 1). This narrowing of attention was related to trait approach motivation (Studies 2 and Study 3). Anger also narrowed conceptual cognitive categorization (Study 4). Narrowing of categorization related to participants' approach motivation toward anger stimuli. Together, these results suggest that anger, an approach-motivated negative affect, narrows perceptual and conceptual cognitive scope. More broadly, these results support the conceptual model that motivational intensity per se, rather than approach-positive and avoidance-negative states, causes a narrowing of cognitive scope.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2010
Publisher: Psychology Press
Date: 07-01-2011
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2008
DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.60
Abstract: Low-prejudice people vary considerably in their ability to regulate intergroup responses. The authors hypothesized that this variability arises from a neural mechanism for monitoring conflict between automatic race-biased tendencies and egalitarian intentions. In Study 1, they found that low-prejudice participants whose nonprejudiced responses are motivated by internal (but not external) factors exhibited better control on a stereotype-inhibition task than did participants motivated by a combination of internal and external factors. This difference was associated with greater conflict-monitoring activity, measured by event-related potentials, when responses required stereotype inhibition. Study 2 demonstrated that group differences were specific to response control in the domain of prejudice. Results indicate that conflict monitoring, a preconscious component of response control, accounts for variability in intergroup bias among low-prejudice participants.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-09-2011
DOI: 10.1111/J.1469-8986.2010.01127.X
Abstract: The present experiment examined the effect of different approach motivational body postures on relative left frontal cortical activity, which has been linked with approach motivation. Three body postures were manipulated to create three levels of approach motivation. Consistent with the motivational direction model, results indicated that leaning forward with arms extended (high approach) caused greater left frontal cortical activation as compared to reclining backwards (low approach). This is the first experiment to demonstrate this effect, and it suggests that leaning forward as compared to reclining backward increases approach motivation. These results provide important implications for the motivational direction model and embodiment research.
Location: United States of America
Location: United States of America
Start Date: 2009
End Date: 2012
Funder: Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2005
End Date: 2009
Funder: Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2007
End Date: 2012
Funder: Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2009
End Date: 2013
Funder: Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2015
End Date: 2017
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 1999
End Date: 2000
Funder: National Institute of Mental Health
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2018
End Date: 2020
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2004
End Date: 2005
Funder: Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2000
End Date: 2004
Funder: Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
View Funded Activity