Page No.154-160
Danielle M. Pereira and Azizuddin Khan
IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India
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The objective of this study was to determine the effect of laterality and valence on the
ability to disengage attention from affective stimuli. Thirty right-handed postgraduate
students participated in the study. A tachistoscopic method was used in a 2x2 withingroups factorial design, with laterality of presentation (right versus left visual field)
and stimuli valence (positive versus negative) as independent variables. Time taken
to disengage attention from affective word primes in milliseconds was the dependent
variable. Results showed that there was no main effect of either laterality or valence.
However, a significant interaction effect was found indicating that the mean reaction time
for disengagement of attention was shorter for negative stimuli presented to the right
hemisphere, and for positive stimuli presented to the left hemisphere. This suggests that
there is valence-dependent lateralization in the inhibition of affective information. The
findings of this study have interesting implications for research on cognitive processes
in emotion regulation.
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