Is Emotional Stroop Interference Linked to Affective Responses? Evidence From Skin Conductance and Facial Electromyography

In two experiments, we examined affective responses and attentional bias toward threat. We compared three dimensions of affective responses (subjective, expressive, physiological) to negative and neutral stimuli in high and low anxious participants and examined whether these responses correlated with attentional interference in an emotional Stroop task. We used an evaluative conditioning procedure to manipulate the affective value of stimuli subsequently used in a Stroop task. We measured facial EMG (Experiment 1), skin conductance (Experiment 2), and subjective evaluations (both experiments). High anxious participants displayed Stroop interference from negatively conditioned stimuli. Both high and low anxious participants showed increased facial expressions and physiological arousal to negatively conditioned stimuli during the Stroop task. Findings suggest that differences between high and low anxious participants are more important in the cognitive processing of threat than affective reactions to threat.

在两项实验中，我们研究了对威胁的情感反应和注意偏向。我们比较了高焦虑和低焦虑参与者对消极和中性刺激的情感反应的三个维度（主观的、表情的、生理的），并检验了这些反应是否与情绪性斯特鲁普任务中的注意干扰相关。我们使用评价性条件作用程序来操纵随后在斯特鲁普任务中使用的刺激的情感价值。我们测量了面部肌电图（实验1）、皮肤电导（实验2）以及主观评价（两项实验均有）。高焦虑参与者对消极条件刺激表现出斯特鲁普干扰。在斯特鲁普任务期间，高焦虑和低焦虑参与者对消极条件刺激都表现出面部表情增加和生理唤醒。研究结果表明，在对威胁的认知加工中，高焦虑和低焦虑参与者之间的差异比对威胁的情感反应更为重要。