Isabelle Blanchette
Biographic Data
| ID | 167926 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Isabelle Blanchette |
| GIVEN NAMES | Isabelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Blanchette |
| SIGNATURE | BLANCHETTE I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4020-5089 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Do emotionally negative events impair working memory as a result of intrusive thoughts
Individuals exposed to highly stressful negative events show alterations in working memory (WM) function. The correlational nature of these studies makes it impossible to determine whether exposure to negative events itself decreases WM. Such events elicit intrusive thoughts which may cause interference in WM. The main objective of this study was to verify the causal impact of a recent negative event on WM, and to examine the role of intrusive th…
An investigation of the mechanisms underlying the link between abstract reasoning and intrusive memories
Potentially traumatic events elicit intrusive memories to which some individuals are more vulnerable than others. Lower abstract reasoning capacity has been related to more intrusive memories. A more perceptual processing style when encoding the event may mediate this link. Another potential mechanism is lower attentional control, resulting in greater attentional bias toward trauma-related content. We examined both of these possibilities using a …
Maternal trauma exposure is linked to adult offspring’s cognitive functioning in the context of mass violence
The findings demonstrate that the intergenerational transmission of trauma can impact the cognitive functioning of the next generation. These results also illustrate the profound and long-term human impact of mass violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
How Threat Shapes Attention and Memory in the Himba, a Remote People of Namibia
Threatening stimuli capture our attention more rapidly than benign stimuli, and threatening experiences lead to longer lasting and more vivid episodic memories. The common interpretation of these findings is that humans share an evolved fear response that enables prioritized processing of threats, providing a survival advantage. This response is assumed to be universal; however, these findings have been documented almost entirely in WEIRD (wester…
Stress and the interpretation of ambiguous faces in police officers
Fast and accurate decision-making are central in police officers’ duties. The processing of information relevant to inform decisions can be biased by the state of mind of officers, notably in the presence of stressful conditions. We sought to examine the link between different sources of stress and the presence of an interpretation bias in a task presenting ambiguous faces. A sample of 234 Canadian police officers took part in an online study mea…
Intergenerational transmission of trauma and its association with attitudes toward reconciliation
These results suggest that the mental health of survivors of mass violence has repercussions on the intergroup attitudes of the following generation. This study has practical implications for sustainable peacebuilding in postconflict societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
Stressful Life Events Are Related to More Negative Interpretations, but Not Under Acute Stress
Studies have identified deleterious effects of stress on multiple cognitive processes such as memory and attention. Little is known about the impact of stress on interpretation. We investigated how an induced acute stress and more long-term stress related to life events were associated with interpretations of ambiguous stimuli. Fifty participants answered a questionnaire indexing the number of stressful life events. A median split was used to com…
The psychological correlates of transitional justice in Rwanda
contrary to what has been reported in two previous studies, participation in the Gacaca was not, in our data, negatively related to mental health or to social cohesion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Is it dangerous? The role of an emotional visual search strategy and threat-relevant training in the detection of guns and knives
Counter-terrorism strategies rely on the assumption that it is possible to increase threat detection by providing explicit verbal instructions to orient people's attention to dangerous objects and hostile behaviours in their environment. Nevertheless, whether verbal cues can be used to enhance threat detection performance under laboratory conditions is currently unclear. In Experiment 1, student participants were required to detect a picture of a…
Long-term cognitive correlates of exposure to trauma
This study reveals the important link between exposure to highly emotional events and cognitive function and highlights the need to attend not only to the mental health but also to the cognitive health of populations exposed to political violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Emotional Response Categorization in Adolescents and Young Adults
Categorization is based on cognitive mechanisms allowing the development of internal representations of the environment that guide behavior. This study tests the influence of emotions on categorization in adolescents and young adults. After a mood induction (negative, positive, or neutral), we compared how 68 adolescents aged 13 to 15 and 57 young adults aged 21 to 29 categorized emotional concepts using a lexical emotional categorization task. P…
Twenty years later, the cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation in Rwanda
With this work, we intended to draw a cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation. No study had yet examined the potential contribution of high‐level cognitive functioning, in addition to psychological health, to explaining attitudes towards reconciliation in societies exposed to major trauma such as post‐genocide Rwanda. We measured the contribution of general cognitive capacity, analytical thinking, and subjective judgements. Our results s…
Emotional Stroop interference in trauma-exposed individuals
Is emotional Stroop interference linked to affective responses? Evidence from skin conductance and facial electromyography
In two experiments, we examined affective responses and attentional bias toward threat. We compared three dimensions of affective responses (subjective, expressive, physiological) to negative and neutral stimuli in high and low anxious participants and examined whether these responses correlated with attentional interference in an emotional Stroop task. We used an evaluative conditioning procedure to manipulate the affective value of stimuli subs…
Developing a novel indirect measure of food liking based on approach-avoidance motivations
Expecting yoghurt drinks to taste sweet or pleasant increases liking
Sensory and hedonic cues lead to assimilation effects for liked, but not disliked yoghurt stimuli
The influence of affect on higher level cognition
In this paper, we examine whether affect influences higher level cognitive processes. We review research on the effect of emotion on interpretation, judgement, decision making, and reasoning. In all cases, we ask first whether there is evidence that emotion affects each of these processes, and second what mechanisms might underlie these effects. Our review highlights the fact that interpretive biases are primarily linked with anxiety, while more …
Affective expectations about food produce a placebo effect and influence liking
Flavour conditioning of specific positive emotions
Independent Manipulation of Emotion in an Emotional Stroop Task Using Classical Conditioning
The effects of emotional connotation on emotional Stroop interference in anxiety were examined. First, a classical conditioning paradigm was used in which neutral words and nonwords were paired with either negative or neutral pictures. These conditioned stimuli were then presented in an emotional Stroop paradigm. Finally, participants rated each word and nonword for emotional connotation. The high-anxious group demonstrated significant interferen…
Expecting yoghurt drinks to taste sweet or pleasant increases liking
Is it dangerous? The role of an emotional visual search strategy and threat-relevant training in the detection of guns and knives
Counter-terrorism strategies rely on the assumption that it is possible to increase threat detection by providing explicit verbal instructions to orient people's attention to dangerous objects and hostile behaviours in their environment. Nevertheless, whether verbal cues can be used to enhance threat detection performance under laboratory conditions is currently unclear. In Experiment 1, student participants were required to detect a picture of a…
Independent Manipulation of Emotion in an Emotional Stroop Task Using Classical Conditioning
The effects of emotional connotation on emotional Stroop interference in anxiety were examined. First, a classical conditioning paradigm was used in which neutral words and nonwords were paired with either negative or neutral pictures. These conditioned stimuli were then presented in an emotional Stroop paradigm. Finally, participants rated each word and nonword for emotional connotation. The high-anxious group demonstrated significant interferen…
Flavour conditioning of specific positive emotions
The influence of affect on higher level cognition
In this paper, we examine whether affect influences higher level cognitive processes. We review research on the effect of emotion on interpretation, judgement, decision making, and reasoning. In all cases, we ask first whether there is evidence that emotion affects each of these processes, and second what mechanisms might underlie these effects. Our review highlights the fact that interpretive biases are primarily linked with anxiety, while more …
Affective expectations about food produce a placebo effect and influence liking
Expecting yoghurt drinks to taste sweet or pleasant increases liking
Sensory and hedonic cues lead to assimilation effects for liked, but not disliked yoghurt stimuli
Is emotional Stroop interference linked to affective responses? Evidence from skin conductance and facial electromyography
In two experiments, we examined affective responses and attentional bias toward threat. We compared three dimensions of affective responses (subjective, expressive, physiological) to negative and neutral stimuli in high and low anxious participants and examined whether these responses correlated with attentional interference in an emotional Stroop task. We used an evaluative conditioning procedure to manipulate the affective value of stimuli subs…
Developing a novel indirect measure of food liking based on approach-avoidance motivations
Emotional Stroop interference in trauma-exposed individuals
Long-term cognitive correlates of exposure to trauma
This study reveals the important link between exposure to highly emotional events and cognitive function and highlights the need to attend not only to the mental health but also to the cognitive health of populations exposed to political violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Emotional Response Categorization in Adolescents and Young Adults
Categorization is based on cognitive mechanisms allowing the development of internal representations of the environment that guide behavior. This study tests the influence of emotions on categorization in adolescents and young adults. After a mood induction (negative, positive, or neutral), we compared how 68 adolescents aged 13 to 15 and 57 young adults aged 21 to 29 categorized emotional concepts using a lexical emotional categorization task. P…
Twenty years later, the cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation in Rwanda
With this work, we intended to draw a cognitive portrait of openness to reconciliation. No study had yet examined the potential contribution of high‐level cognitive functioning, in addition to psychological health, to explaining attitudes towards reconciliation in societies exposed to major trauma such as post‐genocide Rwanda. We measured the contribution of general cognitive capacity, analytical thinking, and subjective judgements. Our results s…
The psychological correlates of transitional justice in Rwanda
contrary to what has been reported in two previous studies, participation in the Gacaca was not, in our data, negatively related to mental health or to social cohesion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Is it dangerous? The role of an emotional visual search strategy and threat-relevant training in the detection of guns and knives
Counter-terrorism strategies rely on the assumption that it is possible to increase threat detection by providing explicit verbal instructions to orient people's attention to dangerous objects and hostile behaviours in their environment. Nevertheless, whether verbal cues can be used to enhance threat detection performance under laboratory conditions is currently unclear. In Experiment 1, student participants were required to detect a picture of a…
Stressful Life Events Are Related to More Negative Interpretations, but Not Under Acute Stress
Studies have identified deleterious effects of stress on multiple cognitive processes such as memory and attention. Little is known about the impact of stress on interpretation. We investigated how an induced acute stress and more long-term stress related to life events were associated with interpretations of ambiguous stimuli. Fifty participants answered a questionnaire indexing the number of stressful life events. A median split was used to com…
Stress and the interpretation of ambiguous faces in police officers
Fast and accurate decision-making are central in police officers’ duties. The processing of information relevant to inform decisions can be biased by the state of mind of officers, notably in the presence of stressful conditions. We sought to examine the link between different sources of stress and the presence of an interpretation bias in a task presenting ambiguous faces. A sample of 234 Canadian police officers took part in an online study mea…
Intergenerational transmission of trauma and its association with attitudes toward reconciliation
These results suggest that the mental health of survivors of mass violence has repercussions on the intergroup attitudes of the following generation. This study has practical implications for sustainable peacebuilding in postconflict societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
How Threat Shapes Attention and Memory in the Himba, a Remote People of Namibia
Threatening stimuli capture our attention more rapidly than benign stimuli, and threatening experiences lead to longer lasting and more vivid episodic memories. The common interpretation of these findings is that humans share an evolved fear response that enables prioritized processing of threats, providing a survival advantage. This response is assumed to be universal; however, these findings have been documented almost entirely in WEIRD (wester…
An investigation of the mechanisms underlying the link between abstract reasoning and intrusive memories
Potentially traumatic events elicit intrusive memories to which some individuals are more vulnerable than others. Lower abstract reasoning capacity has been related to more intrusive memories. A more perceptual processing style when encoding the event may mediate this link. Another potential mechanism is lower attentional control, resulting in greater attentional bias toward trauma-related content. We examined both of these possibilities using a …
Maternal trauma exposure is linked to adult offspring’s cognitive functioning in the context of mass violence
The findings demonstrate that the intergenerational transmission of trauma can impact the cognitive functioning of the next generation. These results also illustrate the profound and long-term human impact of mass violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)
Do emotionally negative events impair working memory as a result of intrusive thoughts
Individuals exposed to highly stressful negative events show alterations in working memory (WM) function. The correlational nature of these studies makes it impossible to determine whether exposure to negative events itself decreases WM. Such events elicit intrusive thoughts which may cause interference in WM. The main objective of this study was to verify the causal impact of a recent negative event on WM, and to examine the role of intrusive th…
Psychology (19 works) · Cognitive psychology (13 works) · Cognition (8 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Clinical Psychology (6 works) · Psychiatry (6 works) · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes (5 works) · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies (5 works)