Impacts Of Positive Affects At Different Levels Of Approach Motivational Intensity; Task Difficulty’s Modifying Role

Most of the early research programs on emotion have been based on the valence of emotion, in other words, on the dichotomy between positive affect and negative affect. However, in recent years, the Motivational Dimensional Model of Affect established by Gable and Harmon-Jones has introduced to the study of emotion the motivation as an additional dimension, apart from valence and arousal. Along this line of research, it is proposed that the impact of emotion on cognitive processing is subject to the rendering of the motivational dimension. Gable and Harmon-Jones have conducted a series of experiments to test this model. The findings show that high approach positive affects (e.g. desire) narrow cognitive processing, while low approach positive affects (e.g. tranquility) broaden cognitive processing. Currently, more and more scholars across the globe have come to advocate the Motivational Dimensional Model of Affect. They concur that the positive affects deliver mixed impacts on cognitive processing. This development has overturned the conventional belief that positive affect was a singular construct.On the assumptions of the Motivational Dimensional Model of Affect, foregoing research programs have tested the impacts of positive affects on the scope of attention or memory, cognitive categorization and other aspects of cognitive processing. Only a scant few engage the impact of the motivational dimension on cognitive flexibility. Indeed, cognitive flexibility has more and more announced itself in recent years under the scrutiny of developmental psychology. By definition, cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to shift one’s mindset or behavior according to the turn of circumstances. In other words, it is the ability to make the optimal reaction to varying situations. Cognitive flexibility renders our reaction best suited for the task at hand, extracting the best course of action from the individual under given circumstances. Many research findings have confirmed that positive affect may catalyze the escalation of cognitive flexibility.Therefore, this research employs the paradigm of Dimensional Card Change Sort. The first experiment evokes high approach positive affects by presenting pictures of delicious desserts to the participants, and low approach positive affects by presenting pictures of beautiful landscape. This research then studies impacts of high and low approach positive affects on cognitive flexibility. Foregoing research programs have covered the different impacts of low approach positive affects (tranquility) and neutral affective states on cognitive flexibility, but somehow been shy of comparing the different impacts of high approach positive affects and neutral affective states. As a result, the second experiment is designed to examine the difference of cognitive flexibility resulted from high approach positive affects versus neutral affective states. Since the literature has indicated that the task difficulty usually influences the impact of emotion on cognitive flexibility, the third experiment is purposed to test the influence of the task difficulty on the interaction between positive affects and cognitive flexibility at different levels of approach intensity.This research delivers the following findings. First, in comparison with high approach positive affects, low approach positive affects raise the individual’s cognitive flexibility. Second, in comparison with neutral affective states, the individual’s cognitive flexibility shrinks under high approach affects. Third, the task difficulty modifies the interaction between positive affects and cognitive flexibility at different levels of approach intensity. In difficult task situations, high approach positive affects do not influence cognitive flexibility to an extent that makes it significantly different than under neutral affective states. In easy task situations, however, high approach positive affects reduce cognitive flexibility, as compared to neutral affective states.