Effects of stimulus characteristics and mood on attention biases for emotional stimuli

Abstract Mood congruent attention biases refer to the preferential attention for stimuli that match a person’s emotional state. While emotion can be defined along two dimensions: valence (negativity to positivity) and arousal (low to high), research has not yet evaluated the direct influences of both dimensions on mood-congruent attention biases. Further, research suggests that other stimulus factors, such as presentation duration, may play a large role in how attention biases manifest. This study aimed to clarify how attention biases for emotional stimuli, varying in valence and arousal, are impacted by mood valence and arousal at short and long stimulus presentation durations. Participants ( N = 223) were split into groups designated by (1) the stimulus presentation duration (short or long) and (2) the mood induction procedure (low arousal negative, high arousal negative, or neutral mood). Analyses examined interactions between stimulus valence, stimulus arousal, stimulus presentation duration group, and induced mood group on attention biases measured through a spatial cuing task. An arousal-based mood congruent bias was observed for the short duration, low arousal negative mood group, such that there was a greater attention bias towards low arousal than high arousal stimuli. An attention bias was also observed for the long duration, neutral mood group, such that there was greater attention bias away from negative than positive stimuli, a pattern that was not observed in the negative mood groups. Overall, this study demonstrates the importance of considering both the valence and arousal of stimulus and mood, as well as stimulus duration when examining mood-congruent attention biases. Implications Understanding the specificity of mood-congruent attention biases may help inform treatment for anxiety and depression through targeted interventions.