Stimulus-Response compatibility based on affective arousal

摘要

Participants responded by producing weak or strong forces to pictures that varied with respect to affective arousal and horizontal position. The task relevance of these stimulus dimensions was manipulated between different groups of participants, with Stimulus-Response mapping varying between blocks of trials. The combination of the respectively task-irrelevant stimulus features with responses varied unpredictably on a trial-to-trial basis. In addition, the valence of the pictures and the combination of valence with response force were varied. When affective arousal was task relevant, there was an advantage of the pairing arousinstrong, not arousinweak over the reverse mapping. No such affectively-based compatibility effect emerged when arousal was task irrelevant. In addition, effects of arousal were modulated by valence, but only when arousal was the relevant stimulus dimension.