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Emotional interference during conflict resolution depends on task context
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
Cognition & Emotion
|December 19, 2019
Summary
Predicting emotional stimuli and task demands is key to reducing emotional interference in high cognitive conflict tasks. This research clarifies conditions for managing emotion
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Mixed evidence exists on how cognitive conflict affects emotion's impact on performance.
- Previous studies show methodological differences, necessitating investigation into specific conditions.
- Understanding emotional interference under cognitive conflict is crucial for optimizing task performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the conditions under which emotional stimuli interference is elicited or eliminated under high cognitive conflict.
- To address methodological variations in prior research on cognitive conflict and emotional modulation.
- To determine the role of predictability in managing emotional interference during tasks.
Main Methods:
- Four behavioral experiments utilizing a gender-discrimination stimulus-response compatibility task.
- A university sample was employed.
- Manipulation of blocked versus randomized conditions for emotion and cognitive conflict.
Main Results:
- When conditions were blocked, emotional faces caused interference in low conflict but not high conflict trials.
- When conditions were randomized, emotional faces interfered with performance across both high and low conflict trials.
- Predictability of both compatibility and emotion is necessary to reduce emotional interference under high cognitive conflict.
Conclusions:
- Reduced emotional interference under high cognitive conflict requires predictability of both compatibility and emotion.
- A top-down anticipatory control mechanism engages with negative emotion during incompatible stimulus-response mappings.
- Findings provide critical insights into the interplay between cognitive control, emotion, and task performance.
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