A registered conceptual replication and extension of Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008): does motivational intensity, valence, or perceptual focality drive attentional breadth?

Abstract

How do emotion and motivation affect the breadth of attention? Competing theoretical accounts propose that valence (pleasantness) or motivational intensity (strength of the urge to approach/avoid) drive changes in attentional breadth. Seminal work by Gable and Harmon-Jones (Gable, P. A., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2008). Approach-motivated positive affect reduces breadth of attention. Psychological Science, 19(5), 476–482, Study 2) found that pictures of desserts narrowed attentional breadth relative to pictures of rocks. This was interpreted as higher motivational intensity narrowing attentional breadth, but the desserts were rated as higher in positive valence than the rocks and may have differed in perceptual focality–confound(s) commonly present in the broader literature. Further, recent work questions whether emotion/motivation has reliable effects on attentional breadth. Here, therefore, we conducted a registered conceptual replication where we assessed whether the narrowing of attentional breadth following dessert (vs rocks) pictures replicated with a new picture set. We also assessed any unique contribution of motivational intensity, valence, and perceptual focality to driving changes in attentional breadth. Participants rated the desserts as more positive in valence and higher in motivational intensity than the rocks. However, attentional breadth was invariant across image type and perceptual focality, and across participant ratings of valence and motivational intensity. These findings challenge the robustness with which emotion and motivation influence attentional breadth.