The negative priming effect in cognitive conflict processing.
The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the specific physiological mechanisms underlying the negative nature of cognitive conflict and its influence on affective word evaluations. The present study used an affective priming paradigm where Stroop stimuli were presented for 200ms after which affective target words had to be evaluated as being positive or negative. Behavioral results showed that reaction times (RTs) were shorter for positive targets following congruent primes relative to incongruent primes, and for negative targets following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes. The ERP results showed that the N2 amplitude (200-300ms) for incongruent stimuli was significantly larger than for congruent stimuli in the Stroop task, which indicated a significant conflict effect. Moreover, the N400 amplitude (300-500ms) was smaller for negative words following incongruent primes relative to congruent primes, and for positive words following congruent primes relative to incongruent primes. The results demonstrated that cognitive conflict modulated both behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of subsequent emotional processing, consistent with its hypothesized registration as an aversive signal.
School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China; College of Education Science, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China.
Fada
F
Pan
College of Education Science, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China.
Liang
L
Shi
School of Public Health, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China.
Qingyun
Q
Lu
College of Education Science, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China.
Xiaogang
X
Wu
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: xues@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
Song
S
Xue
School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China. Electronic address: liqiwei2004@126.com.
Qiwei
Q
Li
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult
Cognitive control; Conflict monitoring; Event-related potentials (ERPs); Priming effect