Treffer: Taming emotion's dominance in perceptual competition: Exposure to emotional images can reduce emotion-induced blindness caused by other emotional images.
Title:
Taming emotion's dominance in perceptual competition: Exposure to emotional images can reduce emotion-induced blindness caused by other emotional images.
Authors:
Onie S; School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. sandy.onie@gmail.com.; Black Dog Institute, Sydney, NSW, Australia. sandy.onie@gmail.com., Donkin C; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany., Most SB; School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. s.most@unsw.edu.au.
Source:
Attention, perception & psychophysics [Atten Percept Psychophys] 2026 Jan 08; Vol. 88 (2), pp. 46. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Jan 08.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101495384 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1943-393X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19433921 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Atten Percept Psychophys Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: 2011- : New York : Springer
Original Publication: Austin, Tex. : Psychonomic Society
Original Publication: Austin, Tex. : Psychonomic Society
MeSH Terms:
References:
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Brainard, D. H. (1997). The psychophysics toolbox. Spatial Vision. https://doi.org/10.1163/156856897X00357. (PMID: 10.1163/156856897X003579176952)
Chen, N. T. M., Clarke, P. J. F., Watson, T. L., MacLeod, C., & Guastella, A. J. (2015). Attentional bias modification facilitates attentional control mechanisms: Evidence from eye tracking. Biological Psychology, 104, 139–146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.12.002. (PMID: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.12.00225527400)
Chun, M. M., & Potter, M. C. (1995). A two-stage model for multiple target detection in rapid serial visual presentation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.21.1.109. (PMID: 10.1037/0096-1523.21.1.1097707027)
Chun, M. M., Golomb, J. D., & Turk-Browne, N. B. (2011). A taxonomy of external and internal attention. Annual Review of Psychology, 62(1), 73–101. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100427. (PMID: 10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.10042719575619)
Clarke, P. J. F., Branson, S., Chen, N. T. M., Van Bockstaele, B., Salemink, E., MacLeod, C., & Notebaert, L. (2017). Attention bias modification training under working memory load increases the magnitude of change in attentional bias. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.02.003. (PMID: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.02.00328257926)
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Edwards, M., Denniston, D., Bariesheff, C., Wyche, N. J., & Goodhew, S. C. (2024). Individual differences in emotion-induced blindness: Are they reliable and what do they measure? Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 86(5), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-024-02900-y. (PMID: 10.3758/s13414-024-02900-y)
Everaert, J., Mogoaşe, C., David, D., & Koster, E. H. W. (2015). Attention bias modification via single-session dot-probe training: Failures to replicate. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.10.011. (PMID: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2014.10.01125468204)
Guilbert, D., Most, S. B., & Curby, K. M. (2020). Real world familiarity does not reduce susceptibility to emotional disruption of perception: Evidence from two temporal attention tasks. Cognition & Emotion, 34(3), 450–461. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1637333. (PMID: 10.1080/02699931.2019.1637333)
Haddara, N., Ravid, J., Miller, E. L., O’Hagan, M., Caracciolo, C., & Miskovic, V. (2018). Anxious anticipation prolongs emotional interference for rapid visual detection. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000521. (PMID: 10.1037/emo000052130335404)
Hallion, L. S., & Ruscio, A. M. (2011). A meta-analysis of the effect of cognitive bias modification on anxiety and depression. Psychological Bulletin, 137(6), 940–958. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024355. (PMID: 10.1037/a002435521728399)
Heeger, D. J. (1992). Normalization of cell responses in cat striate cortex. Visual Neuroscience, 9(2), 181–197. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952523800009640. (PMID: 10.1017/s09525238000096401504027)
Jia, L., Wang, L., Sung, B., Wang, C., Chen, D., & Wang, J. (2020). Habituation to emotional distractors attenuates emotion induced blindness. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000917. (PMID: 10.1037/emo000091736006702)
Jin, M., Onie, S., Curby, K. M., & Most, S. B. (2018). Aversive images cause less perceptual interference among violent video game players: Evidence from emotion-induced blindness. Visual Cognition, 26(10), 753–763. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2018.1553223. (PMID: 10.1080/13506285.2018.1553223)
Joseph, J. S., & Gray, M. J. (2008). Exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. The Journal of Behavior Analysis of Offender and Victim Treatment and Prevention, 1(4), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0100457. (PMID: 10.1037/h0100457)
Kastner, S., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2000). Mechanisms of visual attention in the human cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 315–341. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.315. (PMID: 10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.31510845067)
Kennedy, B. L., & Most, S. B. (2015a). The rapid perceptual impact of emotional distractors. PLoS One, 10(6), Article e0129320. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129320. (PMID: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129320260756034468095)
Kennedy, B. L., & Most, S. B. (2015b). Affective stimuli capture attention regardless of categorical distinctiveness: An emotion-induced blindness study. Visual Cognition, 23(1–2), 105–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2015.1024300. (PMID: 10.1080/13506285.2015.1024300)
Kennedy, B. L., Newman, V. E., & Most, S. B. (2018). Proactive deprioritization of emotional distractors enhances target perception. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000362. (PMID: 10.1037/emo000036228872342)
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Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Attentional bias; Attentional bias modification; Emotion; Emotion-induced blindness; Perceptual competition
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20260108 Date Completed: 20260108 Latest Revision: 20260108
Update Code:
20260109
DOI:
10.3758/s13414-025-03165-9
PMID:
41507452
Database:
MEDLINE
Weitere Informationen
Visual stimuli that have emotional meaning gain priority when competing for perceptual priority. One phenomenon that reflects this is emotion-induced blindness (EIB), in which the quick presentation of an emotional picture impairs people's awareness of a subsequent target. EIB has been proposed to reflect perceptual competition between targets and emotional distractors, with competition increasing the closer in time they appear to each other. We tested whether exposure to emotional pictures - and practice ignoring them - reduces the competitive edge of emotional distractors, as reflected in reduced EIB. Across two experiments, we probed for reduction of EIB when targets and distractors were separated by three temporal separations: lag 1 (where perceptual competition is strongest), lag 2, and lag 4 (where perceptual competition ‒ and EIB ‒ is weak). In Experiment 1, participants trained to ignore negative distractors, ignore neutral distractors, or simply received equivalent exposure to negative distractors over 720 trials. Analyses appeared to reveal no evidence for an effect of prior exposure when tested at lag 1. Experiment 2 investigated whether effects of prior exposure might emerge when EIB was tested at longer distractor-target intervals (lags 2 and 4) and added an additional, no-distractor comparison condition. Analyses of Experiment 2 provided evidence that exposure to negative emotional stimuli may reduce the competitive advantage of novel negative emotional stimuli, reflected in reduced EIB.
(© 2025. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)
Declarations. Competing interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest or competing interests. Ethics approval: This research was approved by the UNSW Human Research Ethics Advisory Panel. Consent to participate: All participants provided informed consent prior to participation. Consent for publication: All participants gave consent to publish their de-identified data.