title: Relevance drives attention: Attentional bias for gain- and loss-related stimuli is driven by delayed disengagement.
abstract: Attentional bias to gain- and loss-related stimuli was investigated in a dot-probe task. We used coloured stimuli that had acquired their valence during the experiment by signalling the chance to either win or lose points in a game task. Replicating previous findings with the additional singleton paradigm, we found attentional bias effects for both gain- and loss-related colours. The effects were due to delayed disengagement from valent stimuli, especially if they were positive, and could not be explained by nonattentional processes like behavioural freezing. Our findings suggest that stimuli signalling opportunities and dangers hold attention, supporting a general motivational relevance principle of the orienting of attention.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Psychology, General Psychology , Universität der Bundeswehr München , Neubiberg , Germany.
authors.forename: Sascha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena , Jena , Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rothermund
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , Saarland Universität Saarbrücken , Saarbrücken , Germany.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wentura
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D000070379:Attentional Bias / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Affective processing; Attentional orienting; Dot-probe; Relevance; Valence bias