Automatic appraisal of motivational valence: motivational affective priming and Simon effects

Moors, Agnes. and De Houwer, Jan. (2001) Automatic appraisal of motivational valence: motivational affective priming and Simon effects. Cognition and Emotion, 15 (6), 749-766. (doi:10.1080/02699930143000293).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We investigated whether motivationally determined stimulus valence can processed in an automatic way, as is assumed in many appraisal theories (e.g., Frijda, 1986, 1993; Lazarus, 1991; Scherer, 1993a). Whereas appraisal theorists typically use conscious self-report methods to investigate their assumptions, our experiments used indirect experimental methods that leave less room for deliberate, conscious reflections of the participants. Using variants of the affective priming and Simon paradigms, we demonstrated that intrinsically neutral, but wanted stimuli facilitated responses with a positive valence, whereas intrinsically neutral, but unwanted stimuli facilitated negative responses. In addition, the second experiment proved be supportive of another assumption made by appraisal theorists according to which a relation exits between different (automatic) outcomes of motivational appraisal (positive-negative) and different action tendencies (approach-withdrawal).

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