Correspondence between stimulus, its reference, and response

Yanmin Zhang, Purdue University

Abstract

Approach-based and avoidance-based behavioral adjustments to the environment have significant adaptation value. People are motivated to approach positive stimuli and avoid negative stimuli. Studies have shown that moving positive stimuli toward self and negative stimuli away from self is faster than the opposite mapping, a phenomenon called the affective stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility effect. Studies have also shown that a reference object (self or other object) determines the direction of the S-R compatibility effect. However, studies on the effect of reference valence are still sparse. The current research investigated the effect of reference valence on affective S-R compatibility. Pictures of Albert Einstein (positive valence) and Adolf Hitler (negative valence) were used as references, with positive and negative adjectives as target stimuli, and responses were made by participants moving a joystick bidirectionally. Results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that moving positive words toward Einstein and negative words away from Einstein was faster than the opposite, whereas moving negative words toward Hitler and positive words away from Hitler was faster than the opposite, which cannot be interpreted by existing accounts of the affective S-R compatibility effect. A matching account was proposed: When the stimulus matched its reference (positive words and Einstein; negative words and Hitler), moving the stimulus toward the reference was faster; when the stimulus mismatched the reference (positive words and Hitler; negative words and Einstein), moving the stimulus away from the reference was faster. Experiments 3-5 demonstrated that matching could happen when the reference was task-irrelevant, but the reference needed to be presented a short interval before the stimulus. Experiments 6-8 showed that matching could happen when neither the stimulus valence nor the reference was task-relevant and the spatial properties of the stimuli were less salient. Results of Experiments 3-8 suggested that the stimulus-reference match can be processed automatically. In conclusion, this study suggests that matching is a general rule for the affective S-R compatibility relation when a valenced reference is provided. Relations between the matching account and other accounts (the categorization hypothesis, the motivational accounts, the cognitive accounts, and the motor congruency model) were discussed.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Proctor, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Cognitive psychology

COinS