Current positive and negative affective states modulate attention: An attentional blink study

The influence of emotion and affect on perception and cognition is now well-documented. For instance, affect has been found to have a direct influence on memory functioning. To investigate whether such effects also extend to the attentional system, we used the “attentional blink” (AB) paradigm. Many studies have documented that the second target (T2) of a pair is typically missed (i.e., less accurately reported) when presented within a time window of about 200–500 ms from the first to-be-detected target (T1; i.e., the AB effect). Using the PANAS, we found in 55 participants that positive affect increases but negative affect decreases the report of the second target. The finding is discussed in relation to a recent theoretical framework of visual attention.