title: An unsuccessful attempt to demonstrate attentional orienting within the purely emotional domain.
abstract: Inhibition of return (IOR) is an attentional effect that has been much researched in the spatial domain, whereby people are slower to respond to stimuli presented in a previously attended location. Recently, Chao (2010) reported that participants were slower to respond to a negative schematic facial target compared with a positive facial target if they had previously viewed a cue with a negative expression, which he interpreted as IOR in the purely emotional domain. That is, once their attention is drawn away, people are slower to reattend to negative emotions. Here, we investigated whether this effect could be observed when controlling for the valence of the target and when using a more naturalistic human facial expression as a cue. We replicated Chao's findings using real face cues, observing slower responses for negative cues followed by negative versus positive targets, and faster responses for positive cues followed by positive versus negative targets. However, our reanalysis indicates that these effects are better accounted for by the valence (positive/negative) of the target, with responses being slower to negative compared with positive facial expressions regardless of the preceding cue. In conclusion, orienting in the emotional domain could not be measured using a cue-target task, as the effect of responding to emotional targets eclipsed any potential emotional cuing effect.
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Ellen
authors: E
authors: Poliakoff
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Alya
authors: A
authors: Latif
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Anna M
authors: AM
authors: Maehr
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Hannah
authors: H
authors: Marshall
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Andrea
authors: A
authors: Roesser
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Tom
authors: T
authors: Scurr
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Victoria
authors: V
authors: Short
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Grace A
authors: GA
authors: Whitaker
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester.
authors: Karen
authors: K
authors: Lander
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult