The Influence of Affect on Cognitive Breadth

Affect plays a critical role in how broadly one processes and thinks about information.
\nBreadth of cognition is shown to relate to, and be influenced by, affect that varies in valence
\n(negative and positive), arousal (high/activated and low/deactivated) and motivational intensity
\n(approach and withdrawal). While extensive work has shown support for the influence of affect
\non breadth of attention (attentional breadth), there is less research on affect and breadth of
\nthought (conceptual breadth). The present dissertation investigates: 1) the relationship between
\nvarious measures of conceptual breadth, 2) how individual differences in naturally occurring
\naffect relate to conceptual breadth, 3) how anticipating and experiencing gains and losses
\ninfluence conceptual breadth, 4) how differences in trait behavioral approach (BAS) and
\ninhibition (BIS) relate to conceptual breadth in a monetary incentive paradigm, and 5) how
\nindividual differences in affect relate to filtering of irrelevant information.
\nIn Study 1, three varied conceptual breadth tasks appropriately estimated a conceptual
\nbreadth latent variable. Individual differences in naturally occurring affect were shown to relate
\nto the common conceptual breadth variability where those who had low arousal positive affect
\nshowed greater conceptual breadth. In Study 2 conceptual breadth scores did not differ when
\nanticipating gains and losses versus experiencing gains and losses. However, BAS, but not BIS,
\nmodulated the effect of large incentives on cognitive categorization where those low in BAS had
\nhigher conceptual breath following large losses and those high in BAS had larger conceptual
\nbreadth following large gains. In Study 3, individual differences in naturally occurring positive
\naffect did not relate to the tendency to bind irrelevant and relevant information into memory
\n(hyper-binding) in a meaningful way across four studies, However, hyper-binding was found in
\nall studies including age groups where hyper-binding has not typically been shown before.
\nEvidence from the current dissertation supports the significant role of affect in conceptual
\nbreadth, whether affect is naturally occurring or influenced by incentives, and provides evidence
\nthat individual differences in affect do not underlie individual differences in hyper-binding.

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