Imagine the following situation: you are reading an interesting book in a library. As you take a brief look around, you notice other people equally engrossed in their reading. This does not distract you, and you continue reading normally. Now, imagine that when you look again, you see someone who looks very scared. Regardless of what your reaction would be, it is certain that you would have difficulty resuming your reading with the same initial focus. At least until you understand what is happening or ensure that it will not impact you.
This happens because part of the mental resources that were being used to read your book would need to be diverted to process this new and emotionally charged information — the scared person. A review published in 2009 provided empirical examples of how emotions interfere with our daily activities, a topic that is still underexplored. The resources used to process information from the environment — such as perceptual selection, conflict resolution, and context maintenance — depend on a function called executive control.
According to the study, these resources are limited and must be shared among different activities. When this occurs, the primary task often suffers. In fact, one of the studies cited in the review showed a decline in the performance of people performing attention tasks when exposed to images with high emotional content (such as faces expressing fear or joy), compared to images with low emotional content (such as an expressionless face).
However, not always does an emotional stimulus hinder our activities. On the contrary, if it is relevant to the task, it can even enhance our performance by mobilizing additional resources. Using the example of reading in the library, if the text included a warning like “The next information will be essential for understanding the following chapters!”, you would certainly double your attention to that section.
In conclusion, sensory information with affective value always receives priority. For example, items with visual appeal, such as the image of a face expressing fear, instantly attract our attention. This mechanism is part of the dynamic interaction between the individual and the environment. Although most studies focus on aversive impact stimuli, this idea can — and should — be expanded to include positive and even neutral stimuli, as long as they reach our perception with strong sensory intensity.
And speaking of perception, do we really perceive everything around us? We will discuss this topic soon!
References
Blair KS et al. Modulation of emotion by cognition and cognition by emotion. Neuroimage. 2007;35(1):430-40;
Pessoa L. How do emotion and motivation direct executive control? Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 2009;13(4):160-6.
Figure: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gol_stavkirke,_masker.jpg
