Emotional distractors can enhance attention.
The deleterious effects of emotional distractors on attention have been well demonstrated. However, it is unclear whether emotional distractors inevitably disrupt task-relevant attention. In the research reported here, the impact of the valence and arousal of distracting emotional stimuli and individual differences in anxiety on task-relevant processing were examined using multilevel modeling. Consistent with prior literature, results showed that high-arousal negative distractors, compared with positive and neutral distractors, were associated with poorer task-relevant attention. However, low-arousal negative distractors were associated with better task-relevant performance than were positive and neutral distractors. Furthermore, these effects were accentuated by individual differences in worry. These findings challenge assumptions that distraction and worry must be minimized for augmented attentional performance. Overall, these results emphasize the importance of taking into account emotional dimensions of arousal and valence as well as individual differences in anxiety when examining attention in the presence of emotional distractors.
1Stony Brook University.
Tamara J
TJ
Sussman
Wendy
W
Heller
Gregory A
GA
Miller
Aprajita
A
Mohanty
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
anxiety; arousal; attention; distractors; emotions; valence