TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional responses in spider fear are closely related to picture awareness
AU - Peira, Nathalie
AU - Golkar, Armita
AU - Öhman, Arne
AU - Anders, Silke
AU - Wiens, Stefan
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to: Stefan Wiens, Frescati Hagväg 9, Psykologiska institutionen, Stockholms universitet, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected] This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Foundation to SW (421-2004-1845, 421-2010-1697).
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Theories of emotion propose that responses to emotional pictures can occur independently of whether or not people are aware of the picture content. Because evidence from dissociation paradigms is inconclusive, we manipulated picture awareness gradually and studied whether emotional responses varied with degree of awareness. Spider fearful and non-fearful participants viewed pictures of spiders and flowers at four levels of backward masking while electrodermal activity and heart rate were measured continuously. Recognition ratings confirmed that participants' picture awareness decreased with masking. Critically, effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate also decreased with masking. These findings suggest that effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate are closely related to picture awareness.
AB - Theories of emotion propose that responses to emotional pictures can occur independently of whether or not people are aware of the picture content. Because evidence from dissociation paradigms is inconclusive, we manipulated picture awareness gradually and studied whether emotional responses varied with degree of awareness. Spider fearful and non-fearful participants viewed pictures of spiders and flowers at four levels of backward masking while electrodermal activity and heart rate were measured continuously. Recognition ratings confirmed that participants' picture awareness decreased with masking. Critically, effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate also decreased with masking. These findings suggest that effects of spider fear on emotion ratings and heart rate are closely related to picture awareness.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857330247&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02699931.2011.579087
DO - 10.1080/02699931.2011.579087
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 21973031
AN - SCOPUS:84857330247
SN - 0269-9931
VL - 26
SP - 252
EP - 260
JO - Cognition and Emotion
JF - Cognition and Emotion
IS - 2
ER -
