The effect of the high-approach versus low-approach motivational positive affect on the processing stage of cognitive control: an event-related potential study

The present study used the event-related potentials to investigate the effect of task-irrelevant, high-approach versus low-approach motivational positive affect on proactive and reactive control, and their neural mechanisms. A cue stimulus and a probe stimulus were presented successively in each trial. Participants were required to maintain the information of the cue and respond to the probe. The results showed that high-approach positive affect reduced the amplitudes of P3b after the cue of low frequency and enlarged the amplitudes of contingent negative variation before all the probes. Conversely, low-approach motivational positive affect improved the amplitude of P3a after the probe in some trials. These findings demonstrated that high (compared with the low)-approach motivational positive affect improved proactive control and influenced the early stage of the cognitive control process. Low (relative to high)-approach motivational positive affect facilitated reactive control and influenced the late process stage of cognitive control. Correspondence to Qin Zhang, PhD, Learning and Cognition Key Laboratory of Beijing, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, No. 105, North Road of Western 3rd-Ring, Beijing 100048, China Tel: +86 135 200 26568; fax: +86 106 890 0320; e-mail: zhangqin@cnu.edu.cn Received September 26, 2017 Accepted September 30, 2017 © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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