The effects of mood on orienting EDRs and on attentional bias toward emotional stimuli

The effects of mood on pre-attentive biases toward pictures varying along valence and arousal dimensions were investigated. 37 undergraduates performed a probe detection task (Bradley, et al., 1998; Cognition and Emotion, 737–753) after negative or positive mood was induced via two different pieces of music. RTs, self-reported mood as measured by the BMIS and changes in electrodermal activity were measured. Five types of pictures were used (positive-low arousal; positive-high arousal; negative-low arousal; negative-high arousal and neutral) to examine the specificity of pre-attentive bias. A measure of attentional bias was derived from manual RTs to probes. MANOVAs results on the BMIS scales showed that participants in the negative mood induction group significantly reported more feelings of anxiety. Participants in the positive mood induction group reported more feelings of contentment. MANOVAs results on RT data showed a significant Group by Valence by Arousal interaction, F (1,35) 5 5.56, p 5 .024. Participants in the anxiety group showed avoidance toward negative- high arousal pictures and vigilance toward the negative-low arousal pictures, p 5 .041. In contrast, participants in the contentment group showed vigilance toward all emotional pictures. MANOVAs results on EDRs data showed a significant Group by Valence interaction, F (1,35) 5 8.94, p 5 .005. Participants in the anxiety group showed larger EDRs when showing avoidance on negative pictures while participants in the contentment group showed larger EDRs when showing vigilance toward positive pictures.