The Influence Of Emotional State On The Voluntary Task Switch

In present study, we used the paradigm of voluntary task switching(VTS) and the international affective picture system(IAPS)to induce emotion to investigate how arousal and valence associated with affective stimuli influenced the voluntary task switching. This study was divided into two experiments which both used IAPS to Induce emotion. Pictures were presented before each trial of the VTS to investigate the influence of valence and arousal on task choice and task performance of the VTS. In addition, by controlling the number of tasks, we investigated how affective stimuli influenced the task switching with the changing of the number of tasks. In the Experiment 1, The subjects were college students, with 26 effective subjects. we used two tasks(parity, size),we found that the arousal associated with affective stimuli influences the switching cost, the valence associated with affective stimuli influences the global performance, but does not influence the switching cost. In the Experiment 2, The subjects were college students, with 27 effective subjects. we used three tasks(parity, size, distance),we found that both the arousal and valence associated with affective stimuli do not influence the voluntary task switching.The results suggested that:(Ⅰ) In the choice of the VTS, the participants will perform more task repeating and less task switching. It shows a greater task repetition bias.(Ⅱ) Even the VTS is affected by top-down control, there is still a significant switching cost.(Ⅲ)Emotions affect the task performance of the VTS, but do not affect the choice of the task. It shows that the task choice and the task performance of the VTS reflect the different cognitive processes.(Ⅳ)The results of present study support the LC–NA hypothesis, but it can’t deny the importance of the competition for resources.(Ⅴ)The arousal associated with affective stimuli influences the switching cost and this effect is due to the assumption of the task-set is strengthening, which supports the task-set inertia hypothesis, rather than the task-set reconfiguration hypothesis.