title: Read-out of emotional information from iconic memory: the longevity of threatening stimuli.
abstract: Previous research has shown that emotional stimuli are more likely than neutral stimuli to be selected by attention, indicating that the processing of emotional information is prioritized. In this study, we examined whether the emotional significance of stimuli influences visual processing already at the level of transient storage of incoming information in iconic memory, before attentional selection takes place. We used a typical iconic memory task in which the delay of a poststimulus cue, indicating which of several visual stimuli has to be reported, was varied. Performance decreased rapidly with increasing cue delay, reflecting the fast decay of information stored in iconic memory. However, although neutral stimulus information and emotional stimulus information were initially equally likely to enter iconic memory, the subsequent decay of the initially stored information was slowed for threatening stimuli, a result indicating that fear-relevant information has prolonged availability for read-out from iconic memory. This finding provides the first evidence that emotional significance already facilitates stimulus processing at the stage of iconic memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Berlin, Germany. christof.kuhbandner@psy.lmu.de
authors.forename: Christof
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kuhbandner
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spitzer
authors.forename: Reinhard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pekrun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors