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Elliott.Jardin.Final.Thesis.pdf (498.52 KB)

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AGING AND ATTENTION TO THREAT; AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION

Jardin, Elliott C
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1447839343

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, College of Sciences and Health Professions.
This study examined age-related differences in processing emotionally valenced objects. Previous studies with younger adults have found that negatively valenced stimuli, such as threatening objects, attract attention involuntarily compared to positively valenced stimuli. The authors suggested that the rapid detection of threatening stimuli has potential adaptive value. The present study was therefore designed to provide the possibility of obtaining converging evidence for this claim using both behavioral and electrophysiological measures. In addition I examined in the present study whether or not the involuntary capture by emotionally valenced objects would be observed in older adults. The cuing paradigm used by Lien, Taylor, and Ruthruff (2013) was applied in the present study. Participants identified the gender of a fearful face in the display. Preceding the target, two cues were presented one emotional [threatening or positive] and one neutral) for 125 ms. The emotional cue was presented either in the same location as the target (25% of the trials; valid) or in a different location (75% of the trials; invalid). Thus, there was no incentive to allocate attention to the emotional cue. The event-related potential (ERP) component of N2pc was used to index spatial attention. The ERP and behavioral data using the Cue-Validity paradigm strongly support that the emotional cues captured attention.
Conor McLennan, PhD (Committee Chair)
Allen Philip, PhD (Committee Member)
Mei-Ching Lien, PhD (Committee Member)
52 p.
Physiology; Psychology
Attention; Perception; Threat detection, ERP; Event-related Potentials

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Jardin, E. C. (2015). AGING AND ATTENTION TO THREAT; AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION [Master's thesis, Cleveland State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1447839343

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Jardin, Elliott. AGING AND ATTENTION TO THREAT; AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION . 2015. Cleveland State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1447839343.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Jardin, Elliott. "AGING AND ATTENTION TO THREAT; AN ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION ." Master's thesis, Cleveland State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1447839343

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

csu1447839343
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This open access ETD is published by Cleveland State University and OhioLINK.