A common-coding account of the bidirectional evaluation-behavior link.
Three experiments tested the influence of approach- and avoidance-related lever movements on the perception of masked affectively positive and negative stimuli. A motivational account of the bidirectional evaluation-behavior link predicted an enhanced detection of response-compatible stimuli, whereas a common-coding model predicted a reduced evaluative sensitivity toward such stimuli due to feature binding conflicts. The results consistently supported the common-coding explanation. In Experiment 1, detection (d') of positive and negative stimuli was selectively impaired by the generation of congruent approach- and avoidance-related lever movements, respectively. This effect, referred to as action-valence blindness, was replicated in Experiment 2 and shown to depend on the evaluative meaning of the generated movement rather than on the movement per se. Experiment 3 revealed that action-valence blindness depends on a temporal overlap between movement generation and stimulus evaluation. A common-coding link between evaluation and motor behavior is discussed.
Eder
Andreas B
AB
Department of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat Jena, Jena, Germany. andreas.eder@uni-jena.de
Klauer
Karl Christoph
KC
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001244:Association; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D003463:Cues; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D009949:Orientation; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult