The mystery remains: breadth of attention in Flanker and Navon tasks unaffected by affective states induced by an appraisal manipulation

Not feeling it: lack of robust emotion effects on breadth of attention

“…The lack of robust findings poses an interesting challenge for the field. Apart from the studies presented here, there are other studies that have failed to replicate the direct effects of emotion on the breadth of attention (Bruyneel et al, 2013;De Luca et al, 2022;Goodhew & Edwards, 2022;Kolnes et al, 2022;E. A. Martin & Kerns, 2011).…”

“…In another example, Martin and Kerns (2011) were unable to replicate the emotion effect on breadth of attention reported in Rowe et al (2007) by using a similar breadth of attention measure but having a larger sample size. Similarly, Kolnes et al (2022) found no significant effects of affective states on breadth of attention in two separate high-powered online experiments with game-like affect elicitation tasks.…”

“…Similar emotional manipulations can sometimes broaden and sometimes narrow the breadth of attention (Fredrickson, 2004;Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2010). At other times, they have no effects on breadth of attention at all (Bruyneel et al, 2013;De Luca et al, 2022;Kolnes et al, 2022). These inconsistencies call for more research to replicate and expand upon previous findings using robust methods.…”

“…Martin and Kerns (2011) used sample sizes of 108 and 104 participants, including both positive and neutral groups in both experiments. Kolnes et al (2022) conducted two web-based studies employing within-subjects designs with sample sizes of 236 and 215 participants. Using statistical power as a heuristic of method quality, the null findings are hard to dismiss entirely.…”