Affective Modulation of Attentional Switching

Affective modulation of attentional switching may have developed early in evolution and may therefore have primacy over other affective influences. This behavioral study investigated the influence of affect on attentional switching between emotionally neutral stimuli, whether limited-capacity control processes are involved, and whether attentional flexibility should be distinguished from attentional broadening. Experiment 1 showed that suboptimally presented happy faces facilitated switching from an automatized response routine, whereas angry faces had the opposite effect. In Experiment 2, participants with a dominant global (i.e., broad) or local (i.e., narrow) spatial bias switched more easily to the opposite bias after suboptimal happy faces than after neutral primes but less easily after angry faces. Affective modulation of attentional switching was probably incorporated during evolution in many more complex forms of information processing.