title: Do not prime too much: Prime frequency effects of masked affective stimuli on effort-related cardiovascular response.
abstract: This experiment investigated the prime frequency effect of masked affective stimuli on effort-related cardiovascular response. Cardiovascular reactivity was recorded during a baseline period and an attention task in which either 1/3, 2/3, or 3/3 of the trials included the presentation of masked emotional facial expressions (sad vs. happy). In the resting trials participants were exposed to masked neutral expressions. As expected, and replicating previous findings (Gendolla and Silvestrini, in press), participants in the 1/3 priming condition showed stronger systolic blood pressure reactivity--indicating more effort--when they were exposed to masked sad faces than when they were exposed to masked happy faces. This effect disappeared in the 2/3 and 3/3 conditions. Findings are interpreted as demonstrating habituation effects of masked affective stimuli on effort mobilization.
authors.affiliation: University of Geneva, Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE, Department of Psychology, 40, Bd. du Pont d'Arve, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Silvestrini
authors.forename: Guido H E
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Gendolla
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D003463:Cues; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology; D006240:Happiness; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult