Attentional Capture by Emotional Stimuli: Manipulation of Emotional Valence by the Sample Pre-rating Method

Eye movements directed at emotional and neutral pictures were investigated. Participants were instructed to fixate on a target and avoid looking at a non-target. Results of trials consisting of emotional and neutral pictures were analyzed based on participants' evaluations of the stimuli before the experiment. Results indicated that the number and duration of fixations were larger and longer for targets than for non-targets. Further, the probability of first fixation was less for neutral targets than for emotional targets. This suggests that unpleasant pictures capture visual attention and that the attentional orienting is subject to automatic response. The possibility that top-down processes of visual attention may be involved in attentional capture was also discussed.