Motivation reduces positive and negative emotional distractions

Attention is biased toward emotional stimuli, which are often important for our biologically-determined goals of survival and reproduction. But to succeed in our daily tasks we must sometimes ignore emotional stimuli that are not relevant to current goals. In four experiments, I examine the extent to which we can ignore emotional stimuli if we are motivated to do so. I draw on the Dual Mechanisms of Control (DMC) framework which proposes that we use two modes of control to deal with distraction: reactive control, which shifts attention back to a task after distraction has occurred; and proactive control, which allows us to anticipate and control distraction before it occurs. In non-emotional contexts, task motivation encourages use of more effective, but more effortful, proactive control to ignore emotionally-neutral distractions. But, little is known about how we can control our attention to ignore highly distracting emotional stimuli. In all experiments, participants completed a simple visual task while attempting to ignore task-irrelevant negative (mutilation scenes), positive (erotic scenes), and neutral images (scenes of people). Distraction was indexed by slowing on distractor trials relative to a scrambled distractor, or no distractor, baseline. To manipulate motivation, half the participants completed the task with no performance-contingent reward; the other half completed the task with the opportunity to earn points and/or money for fast and accurate performance. In Experiment 1 the images were presented centrally, so attention must be shifted from the distractor location to complete the task. Reward reduced distraction by both positive and negative emotional images. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1, and measured pupil dilation to index the timecourse of cognitive effort. The aim of Experiment 2 was to determine whether motivation elicits a shift to proactive control to reduce emotional distraction, as it does in non-emotional contexts. Again, reward reduced positive and negative distraction. Pupil findings indicated that reward dynamically enhanced proactive control prior to stimulus-onset, facilitating rapid disengagement from distractors, regardless of their expected emotional value. In contrast, a sustained proactive strategy was used across blocks in which emotional distractors were expected, relative to blocks in which neutral distractors were expected. In the final two experiments, the distractors were presented peripherally and so must capture attention away from the central targets to impair performance. In Experiment 3, and in Experiment 4 – in which the points did not represent money – reward reduced attentional capture by positive and negative emotional distractors. Together, findings show that motivation can enhance control of positive and negative distractions that appear both centrally, and peripherally. Findings extend the DMC framework to an emotional context; motivation elicits a shift to proactive control, even when distractors are high arousal emotional stimuli. Further, in three out of four experiments, reward reduced emotional to a greater extent than neutral distraction, consistent with reward altering the outcome of goal-driven attentional competition between the targets and distractors. Understanding the complex interactions between motivation, emotion, and cognitive control will help to elucidate how we successfully navigate the world to achieve our goals