title: The locus of the emotional Stroop effect: a study with the PRP paradigm.
abstract: Stimuli that are clearly positive or negative (hence valence-laden stimuli) have the potential to interrupt unrelated task processing. A typical example is the emotional Stroop effect (ESE) in which responding to a certain task feature (e.g., color) is delayed by the presentation of task-irrelevant valent stimuli (e.g., negative pictures) compared to valence-neutral stimuli. Here we scrutinize which processes are slowed down by irrelevant but valent stimulation. In Experiment 1, participants performed in a Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) experiment with tone discrimination as Task 1 and color discrimination as Task 2. Importantly, colors in Task 2 were accompanied by valent or neutral pictures. Valent pictures delayed responding in Task 2 (thus an ESE) and this delay was additive to the time interval between tasks. In Experiment 2, task order was reversed and the ESE in Task 1 fully propagated to the Task 2 tone discrimination. These results imply that irrelevant valence-laden stimulation delays capacity-limited processes, and we suggest that this is a late perceptual process acting on stimulus categorization.
authors.affiliation: University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology III, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany. Electronic address: markus.janczyk@uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Janczyk
authors.affiliation: University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology III, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Augst
authors.affiliation: University of Würzburg, Department of Psychology III, Röntgenring 11, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kunde
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012033:Refractory Period, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Emotional Stroop task; Interference; Interruption; PRP; Valence