Examining visual prior entry of semantic affective valences: positive is biased over negative.

Abstract

Affective valences of stimuli (e.g. positive or negative) influence perceptual prioritisation, with emotionally charged stimuli often attended to over neutral ones. However, there are two critical issues in interpreting the previous findings on affective biases: (1) reliance on Reaction Time (RT) measures, which have limitations in capturing subtle cognitive biases at different phases of visual processing, and (2) potential confounds from low-level visual features that can carry affective valence. To address these issues, we used a Temporal Order Judgement (TOJ) paradigm with semantic stimuli and Chinese characters due to their minimised perceptual variations. In this task, two stimuli were presented nearly simultaneously, and participants indicated which appeared first. If an engagement bias is present, participants would consistently perceive the biased stimulus as first appearing even when it was veridically the second (Prior Entry Effect). We specifically examined the direct competition between positive and negative valences at the semantic level. Our results revealed a consistent positive bias over negative stimuli, although its magnitude was smaller than biases observed with facial stimuli in prior research. These findings suggest that affective biases might occur at both semantic and visual levels, offering a more nuanced understanding of emotional attention.