Emotional valence modulates arithmetic strategy execution in priming paradigm: an event-related potential study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Understanding the influence of emotions on cognitive tasks is crucial for educational and psychological research.
• Previous studies have explored emotion's impact on decision-making and memory, but its specific role in arithmetic strategy execution requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how different emotional states (anger, fear, happiness, neutral) affect the performance of multiplication estimation.
• To explore the neural mechanisms underlying emotion's influence on arithmetic strategy using electroencephalography (EEG).

Main Methods:

• Participants completed a two-digit multiplication estimation task employing a down-up strategy under various emotional priming conditions.
• Behavioral data (reaction time) and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to analyze task performance and neural activity.

Main Results:

• Happy emotional states led to significantly faster reaction times compared to anger and fear conditions.
• Neutral emotional states were faster than fearful conditions.
• ERP analysis revealed differences in early neural responses (P1 amplitudes) related to emotional valence, particularly between happiness and neutral conditions.

Conclusions:

• Emotional valence significantly modulates the execution of arithmetic strategies during multiplication estimation.
• The findings suggest a dynamic interplay between emotion and cognitive processes, highlighting the importance of considering emotional states in arithmetic research.