Effects of affective valence on a mixed Spatial Correspondence Task: a reply to Proctor (2013)

The present study investigated the influence of emotional valence on the spatial stimulus-key location correspondence effect in three experiments using the Affective Spatial Correspondence task (AffSCt). We initially reanalyzed the results of Conde et al. (2011) according to the model proposed by Proctor (2013). In that study, compatible and incompatible responses were chosen according to the participants' team preference. In one block, the volunteers had to press a key on the same side for the Favorite team and on the opposite side for the Rival team. In another block, a reverse code was used. We found that responses were faster for the Favorite-compatible/Rival-incompatible condition (614 ms) compared with the Favorite-incompatible/Rival-compatible condition (691 ms). The same experimental arrangement was replicated in another Brazilian city, and similar results were found. Additionally, we employed non-affective "fake" soccer teams as a control condition, and no mapping-rule effect was observed. Finally, a final experiment that used the same design but different non-affective stimuli (yellow and blue bars) was performed to provide further evidence that the valence effect in the present experimental paradigm only occurs with affective stimuli. As expected, non-affective stimuli did not produce an overall advantage for any mapping rules, corroborating earlier findings with similar mixed designs. The results confirmed the previous findings and validity of the AffSCt as a methodology to investigate the effects of emotional valence on stimulus-response correspondence. However, we are unable to provide a conclusive explanation to support the several hypotheses proposed previously in our paper and by Proctor (2013)...

Priming effect of figures that represent external objects or human body parts

A visual stimulus (e.g., a letter, word, or object) may have a lasting effect on the processing of subsequent stimuli. The present study verified the priming effect of a figure (i.e., five-petal daisy) on manual reaction time (MRT) to another equal or different five-petal daisy. Two distinct groups were tested. One group was instructed that the five-petal daisy represented a human hand. The other group was instructed that the five-petal daisy represented a flower. The figures in the pairs of stimuli could share or not share some features such as handedness and view. In both groups, after being informed whether the five-petal daisy represented a flower or human hand, an uninformative flower was presented for 200 ms in the center of the screen. After 1000 ms, a second flower was presented in the same location until the observer responded by pressing a left or right switch. The results showed that prior presentation of the five-petal daisy affected MRT only when the figure represented a human hand. Furthermore, an opposite effect of view on MRT was found. The shorter MRT to the back (dorsal) view of the figure that represented a human hand could be attributable to a faster response to the dorsal view of a hand figure made with a prone posture of the participants' hand than to a front (palm) view. The longer MRT to the back view of the figure that represented a flower may be due to a mental rotation of the object along its vertical axis before selecting the correct response because the response was based on the position of the asymmetrical petal in the canonical front view of the daisy.