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May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Smith, NK; Cacioppo, JT; Larsen, JT; Chartrand, TL
Published in: Neuropsychologia
January 2003

Previous research has shown that negative stimuli elicit more attention than do positive stimuli. However, this research has relied on response-based measures to assess attention. The current research uses the P1 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP) as a proximal index of attention allocation to valenced stimuli. In two studies, P1 amplitude was measured while participants evaluated positive and negative pictures. In both studies, principal components analysis showed that P1 amplitudes to frequent stimuli and to rare negative stimuli were larger than P1 amplitudes to rare positive stimuli. This is (a) evidence for the extremely rapid (<120 ms) differentiation of positive and negative stimuli and (b) process-based evidence for a negativity bias in attention allocation.

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Published In

Neuropsychologia

DOI

EISSN

1873-3514

ISSN

0028-3932

Publication Date

January 2003

Volume

41

Issue

2

Start / End Page

171 / 183

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Behavior
  • Reaction Time
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Electroencephalography
  • Dominance, Cerebral
 

Citation

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Smith, N. K., Cacioppo, J. T., Larsen, J. T., & Chartrand, T. L. (2003). May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli. Neuropsychologia, 41(2), 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00147-1
Smith, N Kyle, John T. Cacioppo, Jeff T. Larsen, and Tanya L. Chartrand. “May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli.Neuropsychologia 41, no. 2 (January 2003): 171–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00147-1.
Smith NK, Cacioppo JT, Larsen JT, Chartrand TL. May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli. Neuropsychologia. 2003 Jan;41(2):171–83.
Smith, N. Kyle, et al. “May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli.Neuropsychologia, vol. 41, no. 2, Jan. 2003, pp. 171–83. Epmc, doi:10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00147-1.
Smith NK, Cacioppo JT, Larsen JT, Chartrand TL. May I have your attention, please: electrocortical responses to positive and negative stimuli. Neuropsychologia. 2003 Jan;41(2):171–183.
Journal cover image

Published In

Neuropsychologia

DOI

EISSN

1873-3514

ISSN

0028-3932

Publication Date

January 2003

Volume

41

Issue

2

Start / End Page

171 / 183

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Behavior
  • Reaction Time
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Evoked Potentials
  • Electroencephalography
  • Dominance, Cerebral