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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 18, 2026

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

Published on: June 29, 2016

Attentional load affects automatic emotional processing: evidence from event-related potentials.

Sonia Doallo¹, Socorro Rodríguez Holguín, Fernando Cadaveira

¹Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Santiago de Compostela, Campus Sur S/N, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. sdoallo@usc.es

|December 14, 2006

Summary

Emotional stimuli processing outside attention is reduced by high cognitive load. Brain responses to unpleasant images were significant only when attention was not heavily engaged, revealing attention

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Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

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Published on: February 1, 2012

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The Emotional Stroop Task: Assessing Cognitive Performance under Exposure to Emotional Content

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Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Impairing Effect of Emotion on Cognition

Published on: February 1, 2012

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

The interplay between attention and emotion processing is a key area of research.
Understanding how unattended emotional stimuli are processed is crucial for explaining attentional biases.
The influence of cognitive load on automatic emotional processing remains an open question.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the modulation of emotional processing at unattended locations by processing load at attended locations.
To determine the extent to which cognitive load affects the brain's response to peripheral emotional stimuli.

Main Methods:

Measurement of event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to visual stimuli.
Presentation of task-irrelevant unpleasant and neutral pictures at peripheral locations.
Manipulation of cognitive load (low vs. high) in a central visual task.

Main Results:

Unpleasant pictures elicited larger N1-P2 amplitudes at parieto-occipital and occipital sites compared to neutral pictures.
This enhanced response to unpleasant stimuli was significant only under low cognitive load conditions.
High cognitive load at the attended location attenuated the brain's response to unattended emotional stimuli.

Conclusions:

Attentional load significantly modulates the automatic processing of affective value in peripheral visual stimuli.
The brain's response to emotional significance is suppressed when cognitive resources are heavily engaged.
These findings highlight the role of attention in gating the processing of emotional information outside the focus of awareness.