Elsevier

Biological Psychology

Volume 74, Issue 3, March 2007, Pages 347-357
Biological Psychology

First evidence for differential and sequential efferent effects of stimulus relevance and goal conduciveness appraisal

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

In the context of a memory task, participants were presented with pictures displaying biological and cultural threat stimuli or neutral stimuli (stimulus relevance manipulation) with superimposed symbols signaling monetary gains or losses (goal conduciveness manipulation). Results for heart rate and facial electromyogram show differential efferent effects of the respective appraisal outcomes and provide first evidence for sequential processing, as postulated by Scherer's component process model of emotion. Specifically, as predicted, muscle activity over the brow and cheek regions marking the process of relevance appraisal occurred significantly earlier than facial muscle activity markers of goal conduciveness appraisal. Heart rate, in contrast, was influenced by the stimulus relevance manipulation only.

Section snippets

Participants

Forty-four (38 female) University of Geneva undergraduates, mainly psychology students, were recruited in the context of a course requirement or via ads posted in a university building. Because of apparatus failure, two female participants had to be excluded from all analyses. The remaining 42 participants were aged between 19 and 40 years (M = 22.1, S.D. = 4.55). Another female participant was excluded from the heart rate analyses because of abnormal arrhythmia. On the basis of a random procedure,

Manipulation check

Participants remembered the picture content (stimulus relevance manipulation) very well and made virtually no mistakes (<1%). They had more difficulties recalling which symbol had been superimposed on the picture (indicating the degree of goal conduciveness). Of the answers concerning the goal conduciveness manipulation check, 5.8% were incorrect and the respective trials were excluded from further analyses.

Heart rate

The four-factorial ANOVA revealed an interaction effect of time × stimulus relevance, F

Discussion

Our main hypothesis was that the proposed sequential nature of the appraisal process (Scherer, 1984, Scherer, 2001) should be manifested in physiological responding. Differences between the stimulus relevance conditions were thought to be reflected earlier in bodily responses than differences between the goal conduciveness conditions. First, we will discuss the efferent effects of the stimulus relevance appraisal. Second, we will do the same with the goal conduciveness appraisal. Finally, the

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    This research was supported by grant 11-61659.00 of the Swiss National Science Foundation to Klaus R. Scherer and Anders Flykt.

    1

    Present address: University of Chicago, IL, USA.

    2

    Present address: Karlstad University, Sweden.

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