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Implicit fear and effort-related cardiac response
Mathieu Chatelain1, Guido H E Gendolla1
1Section of Psychology, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Biological Psychology
|September 2, 2015
Summary
Implicit fear primes significantly increase cardiac effort responses, specifically the pre-ejection period (PEP), during cognitive tasks. This finding supports the Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort (IAPE) model by demonstrating fear
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychophysiology
Background:
- The Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort (IAPE) model posits that implicit affect influences effort-related responses.
- Previous research has explored the IAPE model, but the specific impact of implicit fear on cardiac response remained unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of implicit fear primes on effort-related cardiac response, specifically cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity.
- To test predictions derived from the IAPE model regarding the differential impact of various implicit emotional primes on cardiac effort.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using cognitive tasks (parity task, mental concentration task).
- Participants were exposed to masked facial expressions to elicit implicit fear, sadness, happiness, or anger.
- Cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity was measured as the primary dependent variable during task performance.
Main Results:
- Implicit fear primes led to significantly stronger PEP responses compared to implicit anger and happiness primes in Experiment 1.
- Experiment 2 replicated the effect of implicit fear and also found stronger PEP responses for implicit fear and sadness compared to implicit anger.
- These findings align with the IAPE model's predictions regarding fear and sadness eliciting greater cardiac effort.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first empirical evidence for the systematic impact of implicit fear on effort-related cardiac response.
- The results extend and complete the existing evidence supporting the Implicit-Affect-Primes-Effort (IAPE) model.
- Implicit negative affect, particularly fear, appears to be a potent modulator of physiological effort mobilization.
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