Semantic generalization of punishment-related attentional priority. Issue 5 (28th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Grégoire, Laurent; Kim, Andy J.; Anderson, Brian A.
• Is Part Of: Visual cognition. Volume 29:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 310
• Page End: 317
• Publication Date: 2021-05-28
• Subjects: Selective attention -- attentional prioritization -- associative learning -- punishment -- semantic generalization; Visual perception -- Periodicals; Cognition -- Periodicals; Vision -- Periodicals; 152.14
• DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2021.1914796
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-6285

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The present study aimed to determine whether attentional prioritization of visual stimuli associated with punishment transfers across conceptual knowledge independently of physical features. Participants performed a Stroop task in which words were presented individually. These stimuli consisted of four pairs of synonyms selected such that the two words of each pair have both a strong semantic association and no perceptual similarity. In the learning phase, two words (from two different pairs) were associated with shock independently of performance; all the other words were never paired with shock. In the subsequent test phase, no shock was delivered. Results are consistent with semantic generalization of punishment-related attentional priority; synonyms of words paired with shock produced a Stroop interference effect (i.e., slower response times) in learning and test phases, relative to synonyms of words not paired with shock, suggesting they were prioritized by attention.