Evaluative Learning and the Allocation of Attention to Emotional Stimuli

Abstract

Three experiments are reported that bridge previous research on evaluative learning and attentional bias for emotional material. Research in the latter area has shown that negatively valenced stimuli selectively capture attention in those prone to anxiety or depression. It remains unclear whether this is due to differences in acquired emotional evaluations or different attentional responses to similarly evaluated stimuli. We first replicated earlier findings that pictures paired with unpleasant images are disliked more than those associated with pleasant images. However, these effects on liking did not vary with differences in negative emotionality (neuroticism). In two further experiments, despite the consistent absence of individual difference effects on subjective liking, pictures associated with negative images selected by participants caused more attentional interference in high-neuroticism participants. For low-neuroticism participants, pictures previously paired with pleasant images tended to cause greater interference. Thus, with prior evaluative learning controlled, individuals varying in neuroticism still differ in their attention to newly emotionalized stimuli.