Dataset (E3): The electrophysiological correlates of interference control in modified Emotional Stroop Task with emotional stimuli differing in valence, arousal, and subjective significance

The role of emotional factors in maintaining cognitive control is one of the most intriguing issues in understanding emotion-cognition interactions. In the current experiment, we assessed he role of emotional factors (valence, arousal, and subjective significance) in perceptual and conceptual inhibition processes. We operationalised both processes with the classical cognitive paradigms, i.e., the flanker task and the emotional Stroop task merged into a single experimental procedure. The procedure was based on the presentation of emotional words displayed in four different font colours flanked by the same emotional word printed with the same or different font colour. We expected to find distinct effects of both types of interference: earlier for perceptual and later for conceptual interference. We also predicted an increased arousal level to disturb while increasing the subjective significance level to improve inhibition control effectiveness. As we used orthogonal manipulations of emotional factors, our study allowed us for the first time to assess interactions within emotional factors and between types of interference. We found on the behavioural level the main effects of flanker congruency as well as effects of emotionality. On the electrophysiological level, we found effects for EPN, P2, and N450 components of ERPs. The exploratory analysis revealed that effects due to perceptual interference appeared earlier than the effects of conceptual interference. Importantly, we found that both types of interference worked partially simultaneously. Finally, in terms of conceptual interference, we showed the effect of subjective significance: the reduction of interference cost in N450 for highly subjective significant stimuli. This study is the first one allowing for the investigation of two different types of interference in a single experiment, and provides insight into the role of emotion in cognitive control.

情绪因素在维持认知控制中的作用，是解析情绪-认知交互机制中最引人关注的核心议题之一。在本实验中，我们考察了情绪因素（效价（valence）、唤醒度（arousal）与主观显著性（subjective significance））在知觉抑制与概念抑制过程中的作用。我们采用经典认知范式对两类抑制过程进行操作化定义，即将侧翼任务（flanker task）与情绪性Stroop任务（emotional Stroop task）整合为一套单一实验流程。该实验流程基于以下刺激呈现方式：以四种不同字体颜色呈现情绪词汇，并在其侧翼呈现字体颜色相同或相异的同一情绪词汇。我们预期两类干扰效应会呈现出时程差异：知觉干扰效应出现更早，概念干扰效应则出现较晚。我们同时提出假设：唤醒度升高会对抑制控制产生干扰，而主观显著性提升则会增强抑制控制的效能。由于我们采用了情绪因素的正交操纵设计，本研究首次得以同时考察情绪因素内部的交互作用，以及不同类型干扰间的关联。在行为学层面，我们观测到了侧翼任务一致性的主效应，以及情绪性的显著效应。在电生理层面，我们发现事件相关电位（event-related potentials, ERPs）的EPN、P2与N450成分均存在显著效应。探索性分析结果显示，知觉干扰效应的出现时程早于概念干扰效应。值得注意的是，我们发现两类干扰存在部分同时发生的效应。最后，针对概念干扰，我们观测到了主观显著性的效应：对于高主观显著性刺激，其N450成分对应的干扰代价显著降低。本研究首次实现了在单一实验中同时考察两类不同干扰的效应，为解析情绪在认知控制中的作用机制提供了全新视角。