How the dimension of negative emotional motivation influences time perception: The mediating role of attention control and attention bias

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2023.01917

Abstract

Abstract:

The effects of the motivational direction of negative emotions and the motivational intensity of withdraw negative emotions on temporal perception and the mediating roles of attentional control and attentional bias were investigated on the basis of control value and arousal. The study used emotional pictures to elicit the corresponding emotional motivations; the dot-probe paradigm to measure attentional bias; the Flanker task to measure attentional control; and the temporal reproduction task to measure temporal perception. The results showed that: (1) In negative emotions, the approach motivation led to underestimation of duration, while the withdraw motivation led to overestimation of duration; the stronger the withdraw motivation, the higher the degree of overestimation. (2) Attentional control and attentional disengagement were chained to mediate the effects of motivational direction on the 700 ms, 1700 ms, and 2700 ms temporal perception; attentional vigilance mediated the effect of motivational intensity on the 700 ms perception in withdraw emotions. The study suggests that in negative emotions, the direction of motivation determines the direction of temporal perception bias and the strength of motivation determines the degree of temporal perception bias; the direction of motivation affects temporal perception through the effects of attentional control and attentional disengagement; and the strength of motivation in withdraw emotions affects 700 ms perception through the effects of attentional vigilance. These results shed light on the internal mechanism by which the motivational dimension of negative emotions affects temporal perception, and enrich the interpretative perspective of how the motivational dimension of emotions affects temporal perception through the processing of the attentional system.

Key words: emotion, motivational dimensions, temporal perception, attentional control, attentional bias

YIN Huazhan, ZHANG Li, LIU Pengyu, LI Dan. (2023). How the dimension of negative emotional motivation influences time perception: The mediating role of attention control and attention bias. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 55(12), 1917-1931.

Figures/Tables 11

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the stimulation process for a trial.

Table 1 Evocation of the three emotional pictures (M ± SD)

dimension (math.)	converge to a limit (in calculus)	evade (an issue)	unisex
The Motivation Dimension	6.81 ± 0.70	2.84 ± 0.62	4.98 ± 0.46
pleasantness	2.79 ± 1.13	2.66 ± 0.67	5.00 ± 0.54
arousal	6.19 ± 1.16	6.05 ± 1.20	2.97 ± 1.19

Figure 2. The average duration of reproduction and TPI indexs under emotion of different motivational directions.
Note. Error lines are SD. * represents p < 0.05, ** represents p < 0.01, *** represents p < 0.001.

Table 2 Subjects’ response times (M ± SD) at different motivational orientation pictures and probe point types

Emotional type	ipsilateral	laterality
converge to a limit (in calculus)	400.23 ± 114.25	453.91 ± 124.89
evade (an issue)	397.60 ± 112.18	422.01 ± 118.35
unisex	431.68 ± 108.58

Figure 3. Chain mediation between attentional control and attentional disengagement in the direction of emotional motivation affecting 700 ms perception.

Figure 4. Chain mediation between attentional control and attentional disengagement in the direction of emotional motivation affecting 1700 ms perception.

Figure 5. Chain mediation between attentional control and attentional disengagement in the direction of emotional motivation affecting 2700 ms perception.

Table 3 Evocation of the three emotional pictures (M ± SD)

dimension (math.)	high withdraw	low evasion	unisex
motivation	2.46 ± 0.76	3.53 ± 1.29	5.23 ± 0.61
pleasantness	2.53 ± 0.92	2.67 ± 1.05	5.44 ± 0.65
arousal	6.15 ± 1.18	5.95 ± 1.34	2.90 ± 1.32

Figure 6. The average duration of reproduction and TPI indexs under emotion of different motivational intensity.
Note. Error lines are SD. * represents p < 0.05, ** represents p < 0.01, *** represents p < 0.001.

Table 4 Subjects' response times (M ± SD) at different motivational intensity pictures and probe point types

Emotional type	ipsilateral	laterality
high withdraw	390.49 ± 111.04	422.02 ± 123.64
low evasion	415.50 ± 127.52	430.91 ± 125.85
unisex	432.37 ± 120.27

Figure 7. Mediation model between emotional motivation intensity and temporal perception.

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