Arousal contributions to affective priming: electrophysiological correlates

Current models of affective processing postulate that not only valence but also the arousal dimension characterizes the emotional experience. However, up-to-date research on affective priming has mainly focused on the contributions of valence congruency to priming. In this study, the authors explored the possible influence of arousal in priming processes. For this purpose, event-related potentials and reaction times were measured in response to high- and low-arousing positive targets that were either congruent or incongruent in arousal with a prime word. Priming arousal did not influence reaction times. By contrast, the processing of high-arousing targets was facilitated by a previous exposure to a congruent prime, as reflected by the reduction in the amplitude of a late positive component around 500 ms that has been thought to reflect attentional and memory processes. These results diverge from the findings of previous studies that primed valence and suggest a differential contribution of arousal and valence to affective priming.