Volitional facilitation of difficult intentions: Joint activation of intention memory and positive affect removes Stroop interference.

Kühl, Julius; Kazén, Miguel

doi:10.1037/0096-3445.128.3.382

Cited by 217 publications

(202 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…The results of a recent study by Kuhl and Kazén (1999) provide evidence consistent with this notion. Here, participants were experimentally induced into positive (i.e., approach-related) or negative (i.e., avoidance-related) affective states, then administered a Stroop task.…”

supporting

confidence: 80%

“…Following Isen's (1987) reasoning, approach-related states may facilitate attentional shifting because they render a more extensive body of cognitive material accessible, thereby providing a greater number of salient targets (e.g., images, concepts, or plans) upon which to potentially refocus at any given point in time. It is also possible that holding the amount of material in working memory constant, such states may simply diminish attentional perseverance, enabling more rapid shifting between mental contents or procedures (Isen, 2000).The results of a recent study by Kuhl and Kazén (1999) provide evidence consistent with this notion. Here, participants were experimentally induced into positive (i.e., approach-related) or negative (i.e., avoidance-related) affective states, then administered a Stroop task.…”

supporting

confidence: 79%

“…The Stroop task may be viewed as assessing attentional flexibility because it requires breaking mental set, and shifting attention toward the goal of naming the color of the word in the face of a concurrent and pervasive tendency to name the word itself. Intriguingly, consistent with the hypothesis that approach-related states bolster the flexibility of attentional selection, Kuhl and Kazén (1999) discovered that Stroop interference was significantly reduced in participants in positive, relative to negative, affective states.…”

supporting

confidence: 58%

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The Influence of Approach and Avoidance Cues on Attentional Flexibility

Friedman

Förster

2005

Motiv Emot

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In two experiments, we tested the prediction that rudimentary approach, relative to avoidance, motivational cues bolster attentional flexibility. This prediction was assessed using manipulations of both exteroceptive and interoceptive motivational cues and with two different measures of attentional flexibility, the Stroop task and the 2-back task. Results were consistent with predictions, suggesting that approach, relative to avoidance, motivational cues facilitate task performance by enhancing the ability to shift the focus of attention in response to task demands.KEY WORDS: motivation; attention; flexibility.In the continuing study of the relationship between emotion and cognition, one of the most intriguing areas of investigation has been that examining the manner in which affective states influence cognitive flexibility, the ability to remain open to new ideas and to think "outside the box." Here, the available evidence has convergently supported the notion that approach-related affective states (e.g., happiness; Carver, Sutton, & Scheier, 2000) significantly enhance the flexibility of cognitive processing across myriad domains of problem solving. For instance, Isen and her associates (see Isen, 2000, for a review) have adduced considerable evidence that happy mood states bolster creativity, including the ability to solve insight problems (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987) and the tendency to generate unusual free associations (Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985; see also, Hirt, 1 70Friedman and Förster Melton, McDonald, & Harackiewicz, 1996;Hirt, Levine, McDonald, Melton, & Martin, 1997). In a related vein, Isen and her colleagues (Isen & Daubman, 1984; see also, Isen, Niedenthal, & Cantor, 1992) have also found that happy moods increase the propensity to view unusual exemplars (e.g., "camel") as bona fide members of a given category (e.g., "modes of transportation"), that positive affect increases variety-seeking (i.e., reduces perseverance) among safe, enjoyable alternatives (Kahn & Isen, 1993) and that transient positive moods bolster openmindedness (i.e., reduce defensiveness) in decision making (e.g., Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997; see also, Aspinwall, 1998). Isen (1987) has accounted for such findings by positing that approach-related (i.e., positive) affective states, such as happiness, engender a "complex cognitive context" that enables concurrent processing of more, and more diverse, material (see also Derryberry and Tucker, 1994;Fredrickson, 2001). In light of this prodigious body of findings, the question arises as to whether approach-related states enhance not only cognitive flexibility, but attentional flexibility as well, defined as the ability to adaptably shift focus among cognitive operations using executive control (see e.g., Posner, 1982, Shallice, 1988. Following Isen's (1987) reasoning, approach-related states may facilitate attentional shifting because they render a more extensive body of cognitive material accessible, thereby providing a greater number of salient targets (e.g....

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supporting

confidence: 80%

supporting

confidence: 79%

supporting

confidence: 58%

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The Influence of Approach and Avoidance Cues on Attentional Flexibility

Friedman

Förster

2005

Motiv Emot

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“…Furthermore, professional golfers have been shown to improve their putting performance when simultaneously performing an auditory discrimination task as compared with when they are fully concentrating on playing golf (Beilock, Carr, MacMahon, & Starkes, 2002). Kuhl and Kazén (1999) found reduced interference in a Stroop task under positive-affect conditions (as induced by emotionally laden prime words), but only when the participants had to perform another task in addition.…”

Section: Relation To Other Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The beneficial effects of additional task load, positive affect, and instruction on the attentional blink.

Olivers

Nieuwenhuis

2006

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

240

263

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The attentional blink reflects the impaired ability to identify the 2nd of 2 targets presented in close succession-a phenomenon that is generally thought to reflect a fundamental cognitive limitation. However, the fundamental nature of this impairment has recently been called into question by the counterintuitive finding that task-irrelevant mental activity improves attentional blink performance (C. N. L. Olivers & S. . The present study found a reduced attentional blink when participants concurrently performed an additional memory task, viewed pictures of positive affective content, or were instructed to focus less on the task. These findings support the hypothesis that the attentional blink is due to an overinvestment of attentional resources in stimulus processing, a suboptimal processing mode that can be counteracted by manipulations promoting divided attention.

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“…For instance, Gray (2001) found that spatial 2-back performance was enhanced by prior viewing of threat-related films and impaired following positive films, while verbal n-back revealed the reverse pattern of effects. In addition, many studies have also shown that positive affect can have a facilitating effect on WM and executive control tasks, which further challenges resource allocation models (Kuhl & Kazen, 1999;Dreisbach & Goschke, 2004;Gray, 2001). Many models have been invoked to account for these results.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Recollecting positive and negative autobiographical memories disrupts working memory

2014

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Working memory and emotion 2 AbstractThe present article reports two experiments examining the impact of recollecting emotionally valenced autobiographical memories on subsequent working memory (WM) task performance. Experiment 1 found that negatively valenced recollection significantly disrupted performance on a supra-span spatial WM task. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings to a verbal WM task (digit recall), and found that both negative and positive autobiographical recollections had a detrimental effect on verbal WM. In addition, we observed that these disruptive effects were more apparent on early (2008) has identified negative effects of stress on cognitive performance as a major risk factor in airplane pilots. One key area of cognition that might be particularly susceptible to the effects of emotion is working memory (WM), that is, the ability to temporarily retain, manipulate, and respond to information drawn from the environment and long-term memory. For example, Baddeley and colleagues (2007, 2013and Baddeley, Banse and Huang, 2012) have argued that

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Volitional facilitation of difficult intentions: Joint activation of intention memory and positive affect removes Stroop interference.

Cited by 217 publications

References 123 publications

The Influence of Approach and Avoidance Cues on Attentional Flexibility

The Influence of Approach and Avoidance Cues on Attentional Flexibility

The beneficial effects of additional task load, positive affect, and instruction on the attentional blink.

Recollecting positive and negative autobiographical memories disrupts working memory

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