The "anger superiority effect" in the discrimination task is independent of temporal task demands

Abstract

Extensive studies have showed that threatening faces are preferentially processed. This preferential processing may be due to more and earlier attentional allocation to threat-related stimuli, which is required for organisms to adopt appropriate reactions. In the present study, two different display durations were introduced and the N2pc was measured to investigate whether the preferential processing of threatening faces was impacted by temporal task demands. The "anger superiority effect" existed with both display durations, indicating that the "anger superiority effect" per se may be independent of temporal task demands. However, the behavioral "anger superiority effect" was modulated by different temporal task demands, which may be due to the execution of external responses rather than attentional processing. At electrophysiological level, the N2pc patterns were not impacted by different display durations, which suggested that the preferential processing of threatening faces, in terms of attentional processing, was independent of different temporal task demands.

Keywords: Angry faces; N2pc; Preferential processing; Temporal task demands.