Re-visiting an affective modulation of stimulus-response binding and retrieval

Action control theories propose that responding to a stimulus leads to the integration of response and stimulus features into a common representation. Repeating any component can retrieve previously bound information, manifesting in so-called stimulus-response (S-R) binding effects. Previous research suggested that S-R binding may be enhanced by positive compared to negative affect, whereas other studies have found no such modulation. We tested whether this difference might depend on the timing of the affective influence on binding and/or retrieval. In a standard sequential prime-probe paradigm participants were asked to respond to the shape of stimuli presented in the first (prime) trial and the subsequent (probe) trial. From prime to probe, stimuli either repeated or changed their colour, which was irrelevant to the shape discrimination tasks, allowing us to assess S-R binding effects between colour and response. Between prime and probe displays, we presented positive or negative images, either directly after the prime offset or immediately before the probe onset. In a pre-registered, high-powered experiment (<i>N</i> = 134) we found clear evidence for S-R binding effects that were not modulated by the presentation of affective images in either timing condition. The results demonstrate that affective content does not modulate binding and retrieval.