Abstract
According to recent theorizing, cognitive control and affective processing are closely linked. Specifically, it has been suggested that negative affect acts as a driving force for attentional adjustment. Empirical support comes from a study by van Steenbergen et al. (Psychol Sci 20:1473–1477, 2009) demonstrating that negative stimuli increase the congruence sequence effect (CSE), a behavioural marker that indexes attentional adjustment. In this research, we provide a theoretical analysis that identifies motivational orientation (approach vs. avoidance) as a potential moderator. To test this, we replicated the study by van Steenbergen et al. (2009) and additionally manipulated the motivational orientation of participants. Participants either gained extra money after task completion (gain-focused group) or lost money after task completion (loss-focused group). Results showed that negative stimuli boost attentional adjustment, but only in the loss-focused group. This finding highlights the role of motivation for recent theorizing on emotion-driven control.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the China Scholarship Council and grants within the Priority Program, SPP 1772 from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), Grant no. DI 2126/1-1. Experimental materials, data and analyses scripts can be retrieved from the link: https://figshare.com/s/388457900362b0454030. The authors would like to thank Henk van Steenbergen for providing us with the materials and the E-Prime programm and Sari Alsalti, Julia Ditz and Patrik Seuling for help with the data collection, and Lisa Huether for language editing.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and analysis were performed by the corresponding author. Data collection was performed by research assistants. The first draft of the manuscript was written by the corresponding author and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors listed in the manuscript have agreed to submission of the manuscript in the present form and I have assumed responsibility to inform my coauthors about further steps in the editorial review process.
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Zhang, J., Kiesel, A. & Dignath, D. When negative affect drives attentional control: The role of motivational orientation. Motiv Emot 46, 546–556 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09951-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-022-09951-4