The role of conflict-induced negative affect in adaptive performance
adjustments: Dissecting the subjective experience and implicit
regulation using ERPs
Abstract
Conflict can induce negative affect, which may enhance performance in
subsequent tasks. Our recent behavirol study showed that the subjective
experience of conflict improved performance not only in subsequent
conflict (incongruent) trials but also in non-conflict (congruent)
trials. However, it remains unclear how fluctuations in conflict-induced
negative affect influence performance adjustments. In this
electroencephalography (EEG) study, we investigated the influences of
subjective experience and implicit regulation of conflict-induced
negative affect on subsequent performance, by comparing two conditions:
‘Experience-do’ where participants simply experienced the Stroop
stimulus, and ‘Experience-Rating-do’ where they rated their emotional
response to the stimulus before responding. Thirty-eight participants
performed a modified color-word Stroop task under these conditions.
Behaviorally, both experiencing and rating conflict-induced negative
affect improved subsequent performance across conflict and non-conflict
trials. At the ERP level, the ‘Experience-R-do’ condition showed
increased Late Positive Potential (LPP) and P1amplitudes in the
preceding phase and decreased conflict slow potential (SP) in the
current phase, suggesting lower control demands. In contrast, the
‘Experience-do’ condition showed increased LPP, P1, and conflict SP
amplitudes in the current phase, reflecting heightened emotional and
cognitive engagement. Notably, improvements in conflict adjustments were
linked to distinct mechanisms: increased P1 and reduced conflict SP
facilitated performance under the ‘Expereicen-R-do’ condition, while
larger LPP was associated with gains in the ‘Experiecne-do’ condition.
These findings shed light on the distinct mechanisms by which subjective
experience and implicit regulation nof conflict-induced negative affect
contribute to adaptive performance adjustments.