Search

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.

Human overt attention under natural conditions is guided by stimulus features as well as by higher cognitive components, such as task and emotional context. In contrast to the considerable progress regarding the former, insight into the interaction of emotions and attention is limited. Here we investigate the influence of the current emotional context on viewing behavior under natural conditions.In two eye-tracking studies participants freely viewed complex scenes embedded in sequences of emotion-laden images. The latter primes constituted specific emotional contexts for neutral target images.Viewing behavior toward target images embedded into sets of primes was affected by the current emotional context, revealing the intensity of the emotional context as a significant moderator. The primes themselves were not scanned in different ways when presented within a block (Study 1), but when presented individually, negative primes were more actively scanned than positive primes (Study 2). These divergent results suggest an interaction between emotional priming and further context factors. Additionally, in most cases primes were scanned more actively than target images. Interestingly, the mere presence of emotion-laden stimuli in a set of images of different categories slowed down viewing activity overall, but the known effect of image category was not affected. Finally, viewing behavior remained largely constant on single images as well as across the targets' post-prime positions (Study 2).We conclude that the emotional context significantly influences the exploration of complex scenes and the emotional context has to be considered in predictions of eye-movement patterns.

Previous research on news perception has been dominated by a cognitively oriented perspective on reception processes, whereas emotions have been widely neglected. Consequently, it has remained open which features of a news story might elicit affective responses and hence modulate news perception, shifting the focus to the emotional potential of the narrative. According to the affective-disposition theory, the experience of suspense is the striving force of immersion in fictional dramas. Thereby, a positive affective disposition toward the protagonist of a story and a high likelihood of a bad ending should increase suspense that, in turn, should positively influence reading appreciation and lingering interest in the story. We investigated whether suspense and its determinants also play such a key role in the context of news stories. Study 1 (n = 263) successfully replicated results of an earlier study, whereas Studies 2 (n = 255) and 3 (n = 599) challenged the generalizability of some effects related to manipulated characteristics of a news story. In contrast, correlational relationships between perceived news characteristics and news evaluation were relatively stable. In particular, participants' liking of the protagonist and the perceived likelihood of a good ending were positively associated with suspense, reading appreciation, and lingering interest. This result indicates a preference for happy endings and contradicts the notion that likely negative outcomes are beneficial for suspense and the enjoyment of news stories, as postulated by the affective-disposition theory in the context of fictional dramas. Moreover, experienced suspense reliably mediated the correlations between, on the one hand, participants' liking of the protagonist and the perceived likelihood of a good ending and, on the other hand, reading appreciation and lingering interest. The news story's personal relevance was less influential than expected. Further, we observed a large absence of interaction effects, indicating that central characteristics of a news story can be independently varied to a large degree. In a nutshell, we may conclude that suspense significantly mediates the correlation between perceived news characteristics and the enjoyment of news stories, whereas manipulations of news characteristics do not necessarily influence the enjoyment of narratives as desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional impacts on attention arises in the form of externally and internally loaded forms. The former relates to the emotional valence of the sensory stimulus. The latter refers to the emotional state of the subject. We investigated their influence and interaction. Seventy-two subjects had been emotionally primed by a sequence of positive or negative images before they observed webpages of an online news portal. Each webpage contained positive and negative emotion-laden stimuli to be recalled in a memory test. We captured effects on overt attention, saccadic parameters, and explorative behavior. Furthermore, we related memory performance to characteristic gaze behavior. We found an attentional preference and a better memory performance for negative stimuli that was more pronounced after a positive mood induction. Importantly, increased attention correlated positively with recall performance on an individual level, but only after a positive mood induction. Moreover, the evaluation of the news-portal’s hedonic quality and overall appeal, but not of usability, was affected by subjects’ emotional states. We concluded that in contrast to previously reported mood-congruent preferences in young adults’ attention, there are complementary effects of internally and externally loaded emotions with the tendency that positive priming increases attention and memory for negative stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]