Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-17T10:20:29.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Arousal-biased preferences for sensory input: An agent-centered and multisource perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2017

Kai Kaspar*
Affiliation:
Social and Media Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, 50931 Cologne, Germanykkaspar@uni-koeln.dehttp://kai-kaspar.jimdo.com/

Abstract

I argue that the GANE (glutamate amplifies noradrenergic effects) model basically explains an arousal-based amplification of emotional stimuli, whereas effects on neutral stimuli indicate a contextualization process aiming to reduce stimulus ambiguity. To extend the model's validity, I suggest distinguishing between internal and external emotional sources, as well considering the stimulus valence and addressing age-related differences in attention and memory preferences.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrett, L. F. & Kensinger, E. A. (2010) Context is routinely encoded during emotion perception. Psychological Science 21:595–99.Google Scholar
Barrett, L. F., Mesquita, B. & Gendron, M. (2011) Context in emotion perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science 20:286–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, M. W. & Leinenger, M. (2011) Attentional selection is biased toward mood-congruent stimuli. Emotion 11:1248–54.Google Scholar
Bryant, J. & Miron, D. (2003) Excitation-transfer theory and three-factor theory of emotion. In: Communication and emotion: Essays in honor of Dolf Zillmann, ed. Bryant, J., Roskos-Ewoldsen, D. & Cantor, J., pp. 3159. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Carstensen, L. L., Fung, H. H. & Charles, S. T. (2003) Socioemotional selectivity theory and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion 27:103–23.Google Scholar
Duval, E. R., Moser, J. S., Huppert, J. D. & Simons, R. F. (2013) What's in a face? The late positive potential reflects the level of facial affect expression. Journal of Psychophysiology 27:2738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahn, S., Carlson, C., Singer, S. & Gronlund, S. D. (2006) Aging and visual search: Automatic and controlled attentional bias to threat faces. Acta Psychologica 123:312–36.Google Scholar
Ito, T. A., Cacioppo, J. T. & Lang, P. J. (1998) Eliciting affect using the International Affective Picture System: Trajectories through evaluative space. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24:855–79.Google Scholar
Kaspar, K. (2013) What guides overt attention under natural conditions? Past and future research. ISRN Neuroscience Article ID 868491:18.Google Scholar
Kaspar, K. & König, P. (2012) Emotions and personality traits as high-level factors in visual attention: A review. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6:321.Google Scholar
Kaspar, K., Ramos Gameiro, R. & König, P. (2015) Feeling good, searching the bad: Positive priming increases attention and memory for negative stimuli on webpages. Computers in Human Behavior 53:332–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, S. & Hamann, S. B. (2007) Neural correlates of positive and negative emotion regulation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19:776–98.Google Scholar
Knight, M., Seymour, T. L., Gaunt, J. T., Baker, C., Nesmith, K. & Mather, M. (2007) Aging and goal-directed emotional attention: Distraction reverses emotional biases. Emotion 7(4):705–14. doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.7.4.705.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parrott, W. G. & Sabini, J. (1990) Mood and memory under natural conditions: Evidence for mood incongruent recall. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 59:321–36.Google Scholar
Reed, A. E., Chan, L. & Mikels, J. A. (2014) Meta-analysis of the age-related positivity effect: Age differences in preferences for positive over negative information. Psychology and Aging 29:115.Google Scholar
Schwager, S. & Rothermund, K. (2013) Counter-regulation triggered by emotions: Positive/negative affective states elicit opposite valence biases in affective processing. Cognition and Emotion 27:839–55.Google Scholar
Zillmann, D. (1983) Transfer of excitation in emotional behavior. In: Social psychophysiology: A sourcebook, ed. Cacioppo, J. T. & Petty, R. E., pp. 215–40. Guilford Press.Google Scholar