Combination of Affect

People’s affective experiences can be influenced by multiple informational inputs. It remains unclear however how this occurs? In this paper, we investigate the construction of affective experiences dependent on the varying number of previously presented, affectively-charged, informational inputs. In addition, because affect is often used as a cue in judgment and decision-making, we probe whether the resulting affective experience is mapped onto people’s valuation judgments (how much people are willing-to-pay for target rewards and experiences). In three studies, we show that people’s overall affective experience is constructed by averaging the affect of the previously presented, affectively-charged inputs. Subsequently, we find that people rely on the resulting affective experience as a cue for their judgments, as willingness-to-pay valuations were predicted by the combined affective experience. We measured integral, expected, as well as momentary affect – using both self-report and physiological measures. We discuss the potential for studying further how multiple inputs change affect as well as the implications for judgment and decision making.

Link to paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02699931.2019.1675597

人类的情感体验可受多种信息输入的影响。然而，这种影响的机制尚不明确。在本研究中，我们探讨了基于先前呈现的、具有情感色彩的信息输入数量差异的情感体验构建过程。此外，鉴于情感常被用作判断和决策的线索，我们进一步探究了由此产生的情感体验是否映射至人们的价值判断（即人们愿意为目标奖励和体验支付多少）。在三项研究中，我们发现人们的整体情感体验是通过平均先前呈现的、具有情感色彩的信息输入的情感来构建的。随后，我们发现人们将由此产生的情感体验作为判断的线索，因为愿意支付的价值评估可由综合情感体验预测。我们采用自我报告和生理测量方法，测量了整体情感、预期情感以及瞬时情感。我们讨论了进一步研究多输入如何改变情感以及这对判断和决策影响的潜在可能性。