With a clear head: The moderating impact of task load on affect.

Prof. Lotte van Dillen (Leiden University)

03 décembre 2013, 16h, Uni-Mail M5193

The current presentation aims to show that the impact of affective cues on people’s feelings, judgments and decisions is contingent upon the availability of cognitive resources. Humans can only process a limited amount of information at a time. This limitation not only applies to the processing of neutral information but also to the processing of affective information, such that neutral and affective information may compete over the same cognitive resources. Accordingly, affective cues should less likely impact people’s mental states and behaviors when cognitive load of a neutral task increases. Both neuropsychological and behavioral research findings will be presented that demonstrate how increasing task load reduces the impact of affective cues on various (social) psychological processes, such as emotion regulation, self-control and moral judgments. As such, the current research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the conditions under which people are influenced by affective cues from their environment. During the presentation, limitations and implications of a ‘limited resources account’of affective processing will be addressed.