Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Freeze or flee? : negative stimuli elicit selective responding

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Estes, Zachary and Verges, Michelle (2008) Freeze or flee? : negative stimuli elicit selective responding. Cognition, Vol.108 (No.2). pp. 557-565. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.03.003

[img] Text
WRAP_Estes_Estes_Verges.doc

Download (77Kb)
[img]
Preview
Text
WRAP_Estes_Estes_Verges.pdf

Download (61Kb)
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.03.003

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Humans preferentially attend to negative stimuli. A consequence of this automatic vigilance for negative valence is that negative words elicit slower responses than neutral or positive words on a host of cognitive tasks. Some researchers have speculated that negative stimuli elicit a general suppression of motor activity, akin to the freezing response exhibited by animals under threat. Alternatively, we suggest that negative stimuli only elicit slowed responding on tasks for which stimulus valence is irrelevant for responding. To discriminate between these motor suppression and response-relevance hypotheses, we elicited both lexical decisions and valence judgments of negative words and positive words. Relative to positive words (e.g., kitten), negative words (e.g., spider) elicited slower lexical decisions but faster valence judgments. Results therefore indicate that negative stimuli do not cause a generalized motor suppression. Rather, negative stimuli elicit selective responding, with faster responses on tasks for which stimulus valence is response-relevant.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Faculty of Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Adversive stimuli, Reflexes
Journal or Publication Title: Cognition
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0010-0277
Official Date: 22 April 2008
Dates:
DateEvent
22 April 2008["eprint_fieldopt_dates_date_type_available" not defined]
Volume: Vol.108
Number: No.2
Page Range: pp. 557-565
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.03.003
Status: Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version: Open Access
Description:

Version accepted by publisher (post-print, after peer review, before copy-editing)

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us