PROCEEDINGS IPMU '08
How emotion affects computing a simple task: a psychological study
Jean-François Billot, Charles Tijus, Marcel Bromberg
The affects of predictability of the
stimuli, of induced emotions and of
preparation for the task on monotone
Continuous Task Performance task
(CPT) which consist in typing on the
keyboard) the letter preceding in
alphabetical order (action, eg; L) the
one appearing on the screen (stimulus:
M). We varied predictability of the
letter (predictable, unpredictable and
alternative sequences of predictable and
unpredictable stimuli), and task
preparation (with and without), induced
emotion (positive, neutral and
negative).
Results show that the more the task was
predictable, shortest was response time
(RT) and smaller was the number of
errors. Preparation increased response
times as providing more control while
emotions did not affect Rts, but error
rates in interaction with predictability:
negative emotions increased the amount
of errors for unpredictable targets while
both positive and negative emotion
decreased the amount of errors. Results
are discussed in terms of internal or
external distribution of attention under
automatic or controlled cognitive
processes.
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