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Effects of Prime Task on Affective Priming By Facial Expressions of Emotion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Luis Aguado ,
Ana Garcia-Gutierrez ,
Ester Castañeda  and
Cristina Saugar
Luis Aguado*
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense
Ana Garcia-Gutierrez
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense
Ester Castañeda
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense
Cristina Saugar
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense
*
Correspondence should be addressed to Luis Aguado, Facultad de Psicología, Campus de Somosaguas, 28023 Madrid, Spain. Phone number: 91 3943161. FAX: 91 3943189. E-mail: laguado@psi.ucm.es
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Abstract

Priming of affective word evaluation by pictures of faces showing positive and negative emotional expressions was investigated in two experiments that used a double task procedure where participants were asked to respond to the prime or to the target on different trials. The experiments varied between-subjects the prime task assignment and the prime-target interval (SOA, stimulus onset asynchrony). Significant congruency effects (that is, faster word evaluation when prime and target had the same valence than when they were of opposite valence) were observed in both experiments. When the prime task oriented the subjects to an affectively irrelevant property of the faces (their gender), priming was observed at SOA 300 ms but not at SOA 1000 ms (Experiment 1). However, when the prime task assignment explicitly oriented the subjects to the valence of the face, priming was observed at both SOA durations (Experiment 2). These results show, first, that affective priming by pictures of facial emotion can be obtained even when the subject has an explicit goal to process a non-affective property of the prime. Second, sensitivity of the priming effect to SOA duration seems to depend on whether it is mediated by intentional or unintentional activation of the valence of the face prime.

En dos experimentos con un procedimiento de doble tarea en el que los participantes habían de responder al “prime” o al “target” en diferentes ensayos, se estudió el efecto de “priming” sobre la evaluación afectiva de palabras, producido por imágenes de caras que mostraban expresiones emocionales positivas o negativas. En los experimentos se varió entre sujetos la naturaleza de la tarea a realizar respecto al “prime” y la duración del intervalo prime-target (SOA). En ambos experimentos se obtuvieron efectos significativos de la congruencia, es decir, evaluación más rápida de las palabras cuando “prime” y “target” eran de la misma valencia que cuando eran de valencia opuesta. Cuando la tarea con el “prime” orientaba a los sujetos hacia una propiedad afectivamente irrelevante de las caras (su género), se obtuvo “priming” con SOA de 300 mseg, pero no con SOA de 1000 mseg (Experimento 1). En cambio, cuando la tarea con el “prime” orientaba expresamente a los sujetos hacia la valencia de la cara, se obtuvo “priming” con ambas duraciones de SOA. Estos resultados muestran, en primer lugar, que puede obtenerse “priming” afectivo con imágenes de expresiones faciales de la emoción aun cuando el sujeto esté expresamente orientado a procesar una propiedad no afectiva del “prime”. En segundo lugar, la sensibilidad del “priming” a la duración del SOA parece depender de si el efecto está mediado por la activación intencional o no intencional de la valencia de la cara que actúa como “prime”.

Keywords

affective primingfacial expressions of emotionautomatic and controlled processing“priming” afectivoexpresiones faciales de la emociónprocesamiento automático y controlado
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 2007 , pp. 209 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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