Conflict-driven adaptive control is enhanced by integral negative emotion on a short time scale

Abstract

Negative emotion influences cognitive control, and more specifically conflict adaptation. However, discrepant results have often been reported in the literature. In this study, we broke down negative emotion into integral and incidental components using a modern motivation-based framework, and assessed whether the former could change conflict adaptation. In the first experiment, we manipulated the duration of the inter-trial-interval (ITI) to assess the actual time-scale of this effect. Integral negative emotion was induced by using loss-related feedback contingent on task performance, and measured at the subjective and physiological levels. Results showed that conflict-driven adaptive control was enhanced when integral negative emotion was elicited, compared to a control condition without changes in defensive motivation. Importantly, this effect was only found when a short, as opposed to long ITI was used, suggesting that it had a short time scale. In the second experiment, we controlled for effects of feature repetition and contingency learning, and replicated an enhanced conflict adaptation effect when integral negative emotion was elicited and a short ITI was used. We interpret these new results against a standard cognitive control framework assuming that integral negative emotion amplifies specific control signals transiently, and in turn enhances conflict adaptation.

The face of control: Corrugator supercilii tracks aversive conflict signals in the service of adaptive cognitive control

“…On a very speculative note, the absence of conflict effects in Experiment 3 might point to the possibility that the presence of performance feedback is an important boundary condition to observe conflict-driven modulation of the corrugator muscle. It should be noted that errors were not punished in the present research-unlike in other experiments where errors sometimes lead to loss of points or feedback is provided by unpleasant auditory or sensory signals (e.g., Lindström et al, 2013;Yang & Pourtois, 2018). Interestingly, the magnitudes of the conflict-adaptation effect in Experiment 3 and Experiment 2 were comparable (see the confidence intervals reported in Table 1), suggesting that the conflict adaptation can happen in the absence of aversive signals detectable with EMG.…”

Reappraising cognitive control: normal reactive adjustments following conflict processing are abolished by proactive emotion regulation

“…It was found previously that conflict is inherently aversive and thus negatively connoted (Dreisbach & Fischer, 2012). Recently, we also found that the CSE was increased during the encounter of integral negative emotion (Yang & Pourtois, 2018). Negative emotion might provide another source triggering enhanced control adjustments, given the close ties between 7 defensive motivation and CC (Inzlicht et al, 2015).…”

“…Based on the evidence reviewed here above, we reasoned that evaluative feedback should have different impacts on the CSE depending on conflict frequency. More specifically, evaluative feedback (with a higher motivational significance) should strengthen reactive control when conflict frequency is low, thereby increasing the CSE (see also Van Steenbergen, Band, & Hommel, 2009Yang & Pourtois, 2018). By comparison, this increase in the size of the CSE should not be observed when conflict frequency is high and thus proactive control presumably dominates.…”

“…Further, we hypothesized that neutral feedback, which is devoid of any specific motivational significance, should not influence the CSE depending on conflict frequency (see Yang & Pourtois, 2018). To test this prediction, we therefore manipulated the type of feedback presented at the single trial level across different blocks.…”

“…Hence, either a positive or negative feedback was presented depending on actual performance. In the other half, the feedback was always neutral (for a similar manipulation, see Yang & Pourtois, 2018).…”