Positive Emotions Modulate Task Switching

Emotions permeate people's daily lives everywhere and anytime. Emotional system is a very important mental processing system for individuals and the organizer of other mental activities. Many emotional researchers focus on the relationship between emotion and cognitive processing. A large amount of research has shown convincingly that negative emotions can undermine cognitive processing, but there are few research of the effect of positive .emotions on cognition. Recent years, researchers found mat positive emotions could increase a person's ablility to solve questions, promote to giving rise to new ideas and thoughts, enhance congnitive flexibility. Task switching is the most important component of cognitive flexibility.Using adolescents as subjects, through behavioral data and neuroscience method, adopted brief persentation of emotional pictures to induce emotional responses,based on the theory of positive emotions' influence on cognition and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, the current study aimed at investigating whether mild positive emotional responses can facilitate task switching and its psychological mechanism, developmental change, gender difference and the neurobiological mechanisms. Ther results showed that(1) The effective induction of mild increases in positive emotion, as compared with netural or negative emotions, reduced switch cost and promoted cognitive flexibility, eliminated perseveration. Negative emotions exerted opposite effects on task switching, increased switch cost and persevration. Further analysis indicated the increase in cognitive flexibility observed with positive emotion was emotional valence effect rather than arousal effect.(2) This research indicated that the mental mechainsms underlying the facilitating effects of positive emotion on cognitive flexibility was novelty capture under positive emotions.(3) The faciliating effects of positive emotions on task switching has developmental change and gender difference. The facilitating effects of positive emotions on task switching had developmental change in males but not in females. During middel school period, positive emotions facilitated task switching and negative emotions undermine task switching in males. During high school and college school periods, emotions had no significant influence on task switching, positive emotions as compared with neutral and negative emotions didn't facilitate task switching significantly.(4)The facilitating effects of positive emotions on task swithcing had developmental stability in females. From middle school stage to college school stage, positive emotions facilitate task switching and negative emotions undermine task swtiching all along. The facilitating effects of positive emotions on task switching appears more apparently in females.