Statistical learning of across-trial regularities weakens emotion-induced blindness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21505180 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jiaxin Xu (0000-0003-2367-2232, Shandong Normal University), Jingjing Qian (0000-0001-8586-8113, Shandong Normal University), Yani Liu (0000-0001-5706-0811, Shandong Normal University), Xiaohui Zhu (0000-0002-8617-3775, Shandong Normal University), Mengyu Zhou (0000-0002-0322-7513, Shandong Normal University), Yanju REN (0000-0002-8776-8711, Shandong Normal University, corresponding author), Richard A Abrams (Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, USA) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-18 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cognition & Emotion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0269-9931 • E-ISSN: 1464-0600 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02699931.2025.2576041 |
| PMID | 41116318 |
| OpenAlex | W4415387788 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
Emotion-induced blindness (EIB) refers to a brief impairment in visual processing induced by the appearance of an emotional, but task-irrelevant, image. Recent research has shown that EIB is difficult to eliminate, although a few manipulations have succeeded in reducing its magnitude. However, whether EIB can be reduced or eliminated by statistical learning of across-trial regularities is not known. The present study examined this issue by introducing predictability in the timing of the targets and the emotionality and physical appearance of the distractors presented in a rapid stream of images. The results of Experiment 1 show that the typical EIB effect was eliminated when these regularities existed simultaneously, revealing an effect of statistical learning despite the absence of awareness of the regularities by the participants. Experiments 2-5 further analyzed the roles of specific regularities, and the results show that only the combined effects of predictable distractor emotionality and physical appearance can significantly weaken EIB, revealing the importance of those factors in the effect. The procedure represents one of the few successful attempts to weaken EIB, and provides important insights into the underlying mechanisms by linking EIB to other effects of statistical regularity on the allocation of attention
Blindness · Emotionality · Inattentional blindness · Predictability · Statistical analysis · Statistical Learning · Functional Brain Connectivity Studies · Neural dynamics and brain function · Visual perception and processing mechanisms
The cognitive control of emotion
Anticipated moments
Perceptual selectivity for color and form
Value-driven attentional capture
How brains beware
MorePower 6.0 for Anova with relational confidence intervals and Bayesian analysis
Habituation revisited
Prior memory encoding of negative distractors biases emotion-induced blindness
Searching for emotional salience
Perceptual, not memorial, disruption underlies emotion-induced blindness
Proactive deprioritization of emotional distractors enhances target perception
Habituation to emotional distractors attenuates emotion-induced blindness
Testing a goal-driven account of involuntary attentional capture by threat
Statistical learning research
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |