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Recognizing the Bank Robber and Spotting the Difference: Emotional State and Global vs. Local Attentional Set

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2014

Antonia Pilar Pacheco-Unguetti ,
Alberto Acosta  and
Juan Lupiáñez
Antonia Pilar Pacheco-Unguetti*
Affiliation:
Universidad de las Islas Baleares (Spain)
Alberto Acosta
Affiliation:
Universidad de Granada (Spain)
Juan Lupiáñez
Affiliation:
Universidad de Granada (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to A. P. Pacheco Unguetti, PhD. Department of Psychology. Universidad de las Islas Baleares. Ctra de Valldemossa, Km 7.5. 07122. Palma de Mallorca (Spain). E-Mail: ap.pacheco@uib.es
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Abstract

In two experiments (161 participants in total), we investigated how current mood influences processing styles (global vs. local). Participants watched a video of a bank robbery before receiving a positive, negative or neutral induction, and they performed two tasks: a face-recognition task about the bank robber as global processing measure, and a spot-the-difference task using neutral pictures (Experiment-1) or emotional scenes (Experiment-2) as local processing measure. Results showed that positive mood induction favoured a global processing style, enhancing participants’ ability to correctly identify a face even when they watched the video before the mood-induction. This shows that, besides influencing encoding processes, mood state can be also related to retrieval processes. On the contrary, negative mood induction enhanced a local processing style, making easier and faster the detection of differences between nearly identical pictures, independently of their valence. This dissociation supports the hypothesis that current mood modulates processing through activation of different cognitive styles.

Keywords

Global-local processing stylesface recognition taskspot-the-difference taskmood induction
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 17 , 2014 , E28
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2014 

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