How Positive Affect Modulates Proactive Control: Reduced Usage of Informative Cues Under Positive Affect with Low Arousal

An example of proactive control is the usage of informative cues to prepare for an upcoming task. Here the authors will present data from a series of three experiments, showing that positive affect along with low arousal reduces proactive control in form of a reduced reliance on informative cues. In three affect groups, neutral or positive affective picture stimuli with low and high arousal preceded every trial. In Experiments 1 and 2, using a simple response cueing paradigm with informative cues (66% cue validity), a reduced cue validity effect (CVE) was found under positive affect with low arousal. To test the robustness of the effect and to see whether reactive control is also modulated by positive affect, Experiment 3 used a cued task switching paradigm with predicitive cues (75% cue validity). As expected, a reduced CVE was again found specifically in the positive affect condition with low arousal, but only for task repetitions. Furthermore, there was no difference in switch costs between affect groups (with and without task cues). Taken together, the reduced CVE indicates that positive affect with low arousal reduces proactive control, while comparable switch costs suggest that there is no influence of positive affect on reactive control.