| Response inhibition is an important executive function that inhibits inappropriate dominant behavioral responses.It is of great significance to human survival and development.Reward is considered to be an influencing factor of response inhibition.In previous studies,it was found that if certain features of the stop signal can predict that the individual will receive a reward after successfully inhibiting the behavioral response,then it will facilitate the individual’s response inhibition.The reason may be that the association of stop signal features with reward makes it easier for these features to capture processing resources,which will promote the cognitive processing of the stop signal,and then leads to the faster completion of the stop signal-induced stopping process.However,in previous studies,reward-related stop signals always predict that participants can obtain rewards according to their performance in response inhibition tasks,that is,the connection between the stop signal and the reward occurs during the completion of the task.But there is a situation in real life where the stop signal is associated with the reward before the response inhibition task,and it is not accompanied by the reward in the task.So,does this kind of signal that acquires reward meaning through reward learning still facilitates response inhibition?To explore this question,Study 1 used the monetary incentive delay task to establish the connection between signal and reward,and then used the reward-related signal as the stop signal in the stop signal task.The results showed that the stop signal reaction time under the reward-related signal condition was shorter than that of the non-reward/punishment signal condition,that is,reward has a facilitation effect on response inhibition.According to the hypothesis of the present study,this facilitation occurs because the stop signal is associated with the reward and thus attracts more cognitive processing resources.But in daily life,people contact with others all the time,and their cognitive resources are often unconsciously attracted by various emotional stimuli.Since cognitive resources are limited for a certain period of time,when they are consumed by pre-presented emotional stimuli,the available resources will decrease accordingly.So,will the processing advantage of reward related signals disappear and thus fail to facilitate response inhibition? At the same time,will the facilitation effect of reward on response inhibition be preserved under positive emotion condition because of the mood-congruency effect?To explore these questions,on the basis of Study 1,happy,sad and neutral emotional faces presented in the stop-signal task in Study 2.The results showed that when neutral emotional faces were presented,the stop signal reaction time under the reward-related signal condition was still shorter than that of the non-reward/punishment signal condition.However,when presenting happy and sad emotional faces,there were no significant differences between the two signal type conditions in the stop signal reaction time.That is,under both happy and sad emotion conditions,response inhibition is not facilitated by reward.So if emotional stimuli reduce resource consumption due to the shortening of presentation time,can the facilitation of reward on response inhibition be restored?To explore this question,on the basis of Study 2,Study 3 manipulated the presentation time(100ms and 300ms)of emotional faces.Study 3 obtained consistent results with Study 2 on the stop signal reaction time,and no main effect or interaction of presentation time of emotional stimuli was found.In summary,this study concludes that: After the stop signal is associated with the reward,even if the reward is not provided in the stop signal task,the reward-related signal can still facilitate response inhibition.However,this facilitation disappeared after the presentation of happy or sad emotional stimuli,and this phenomenon was not affected by the presentation time(100ms and 300ms)of emotional stimuli. |
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