Original Article
Using ERPs to investigate valence processing in the affect misattribution procedure
Curtis D. Von Gunten,
Bruce D. Bartholow,
Laura D. Scherer,
Corresponding Author
Curtis D. Von Gunten
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Address correspondence to: Curtis Von Gunten, 119 Psychology Bldg., University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorBruce D. Bartholow
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Search for more papers by this authorLaura D. Scherer
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Search for more papers by this authorCurtis D. Von Gunten,
Bruce D. Bartholow,
Laura D. Scherer,
Corresponding Author
Curtis D. Von Gunten
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Address correspondence to: Curtis Von Gunten, 119 Psychology Bldg., University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorBruce D. Bartholow
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Search for more papers by this authorLaura D. Scherer
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Search for more papers by this authorPreparation of this article was supported in part by grant R01 AA020970 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Abstract
The construct validity of the affect misattribution procedure (AMP) has been challenged by theories proposing that the task does not actually measure affect misattribution. The current study tested the validity of the AMP as a measure of affect misattribution by examining three components of the ERP known to be associated with the allocation of motivated attention. Results revealed that ERP amplitudes varied in response to affectively ambiguous targets as a function of the valence of preceding primes. Furthermore, differences in ERP responses to the targets were largely similar to differences in ERPs elicited by the primes. The existence of valence differentiation in both the prime-locked and the target-locked ERPs, along with the similarity in this differentiation, provides evidence that the affective content of the primes is psychologically registered, and that this content influences the processing of the subsequent, evaluatively ambiguous targets, both of which are required if the priming effects found in the AMP are the result of affect misattribution. However, the behavioral priming effect was uncorrelated with ERP amplitudes, leaving some question as to the locus of this effect in the information-processing system. Findings are discussed in light of the strengths and weaknesses of using ERPs to understand the priming effects in the AMP.
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