scholarly journals Visuospatial bias due to stimulus valence requires conceptual processing

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 676-676
Author(s):  
A. Chasteen ◽  
D. Gozli ◽  
N. White ◽  
P. Lockwood ◽  
J. Pratt
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Stimulus Valence

The Influence of Emotionally Relevant Context on the Evoked Cardiac Response Triggered by an Irrelevant Stimulus

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Kuniecki ◽  
Robert Barry ◽  
Jan Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Auditory Stimulus ◽  
Irrelevant Stimulus ◽  
Cardiac Response ◽  
Mental Task ◽  
Negative Valence ◽  
Cardiac Deceleration ◽  
Relevant Context ◽  
Stimulus Valence ◽  
Affective Stimulus

Abstract The effect of stimulus valence was examined in the evoked cardiac response (ECR) elicited by the exposition of neutral and negative slides as well as by an innocuous auditory stimulus presented on the affective foregrounds generated by the slides. The exposition of the aversive slide produced prolonged cardiac deceleration in comparison with the neutral slide. Similar prolonged deceleration accompanied exposition of the neutral auditory stimulus on the negative visual foreground in comparison with the neutral foreground. We interpret these results as an autonomic correlate of extended stimulus processing associated with the affective stimulus. The initial deceleration response, covering two or three slower heart beats, may be prolonged for several seconds before HR reaches the baseline level again. In such a case the evoked cardiac deceleration can be functionally divided into two parts: the reflexive bradycardia (ECR1) elicited by neutral stimuli and a late decelerative component (LDC). We can speculate that the latter is associated with an additional voluntary continuation of processing of the stimulus. This must involve some cognitive aspect different from the mental task performance which leads to the accelerative ECR2, and we suggest that processing of a stimulus with negative valence is involved in generating the LDC.

From many to one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruben Laukkonen ◽  
Heleen A Slagter
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
The Self ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Current State ◽  
Contemplative Science ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Living Organisms ◽  
The Brain

How profoundly can humans change their own minds? In this paper we offer a unifying account of meditation under the predictive processing view of living organisms. We start from relatively simple axioms. First, the brain is an organ that serves to predict based on past experience, both phylogenetic and ontogenetic. Second, meditation serves to bring one closer to the here and now by disengaging from anticipatory processes. We propose that practicing meditation therefore gradually reduces predictive processing, in particular counterfactual cognition—the tendency to construct abstract and temporally deep representations—until all conceptual processing falls away. Our Many- to-One account also places three main styles of meditation (focused attention, open monitoring, and non-dual meditation) on a single continuum, where each technique progressively relinquishes increasingly engrained habits of prediction, including the self. This deconstruction can also make the above processes available to introspection, permitting certain insights into one’s mind. Our review suggests that our framework is consistent with the current state of empirical and (neuro)phenomenological evidence in contemplative science, and is ultimately illuminating about the plasticity of the predictive mind. It also serves to highlight that contemplative science can fruitfully go beyond cognitive enhancement, attention, and emotion regulation, to its more traditional goal of removing past conditioning and creating conditions for potentially profound insights. Experimental rigor, neurophenomenology, and no-report paradigms combined with neuroimaging are needed to further our understanding of how different styles of meditation affect predictive processing and the self, and the plasticity of the predictive mind more generally.

scholarly journals “Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation

PLoS ONE ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. e3083 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Pagnoni ◽  
Milos Cekic ◽  
Ying Guo
Keyword(s):  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Conceptual Processing

A Novel Measure of Real-Time Perseverative Thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 216770262110380
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Wade ◽  
Rivka T. Cohen ◽  
Paddy Loftus ◽  
Ayelet Meron Ruscio
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Status ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Repetitive Negative Thinking ◽  
Negative Thinking ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Temporal Process ◽  
Stimulus Valence ◽  
Ambiguous Stimuli ◽  
Perseverative Thinking ◽  
Positive Stimuli

Perseverative thinking (PT), or repetitive negative thinking, has historically been measured using global self-report scales. New methods of assessment are needed to advance understanding of this inherently temporal process. We developed an intensive longitudinal method for assessing PT. A mixed sample of 77 individuals ranging widely in trait PT, including persons with PT-related disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, major depression) and persons without psychopathology, used a joystick to provide continuous ratings of thought valence and intensity following exposure to scenarios of differing valence. Joystick responses were robustly predicted by trait PT, clinical status, and stimulus valence. Higher trait perseverators exhibited more extreme joystick values overall, greater stability in values following threatening and ambiguous stimuli, weaker stability in values following positive stimuli, and greater inertia in values following ambiguous stimuli. The joystick method is a promising measure with the potential to shed new light on the dynamics and precipitants of perseverative thinking.

What can size tell us about abstract conceptual processing?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Yao ◽  
Jack Edward Taylor ◽  
Sara C Sereno
Keyword(s):  
Congruency Effect ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
Conceptual Processing ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
Mental Worlds ◽  
Size Congruency

Embodied cognition theories propose that abstract concepts can be embodied via metaphorical extensions from experiences of the physical or the mental worlds. In three experiments, we explored how semantic size (e.g., the magnitude, dimension or extent of an object or a concept) of abstract concepts is mentally represented. We show that abstract size is metaphorically associated with the physical size of concrete objects (Experiment 1) and can produce a semantic-font size congruency effect comparable to that demonstrated in concrete words during online lexical processing (Experiment 2). Critically, this size congruency effect is large when a word is judged by its size but significantly smaller when it is judged by its emotionality (Experiment 3). Our results suggest that semantic size of abstract concepts can be represented in physical size and that such experiences are variably engaged under different task demands. The present findings advocate flexible embodiment of semantic representations, with an emphasis on the role of task effects on conceptual processing.

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