Motivational System Activation and Information Processing: Using a Video Game to Compare Emotional Responses and Cognitive Processing During Appetitive, Aversive, and Coactive States

Abstract

* For Consideration for the Conference within a Conference * A large body of research suggests human emotions are organized around two basic motivational systems: the appetitive system and the aversive system (P.J. Lang, Bradley & Cuthbert, 1997). It has also been suggested that these two systems are separate, and do not always work reciprocally (Cacioppo & Gardner, 1999). Based on this view of emotion, this study explored the variation in the activation of the appetitive and aversive motivational systems as a function of threat types in the context of video game play. One interesting notion that came from Cacioppo and his colleagues is the state of coactivation, where both motivational systems are activated at the same time. Relatively little work has been done around this idea in psychology, and communication scholars have just started to study the effect of coactivation on information processing (e.g., Lang & Sanders-Jackson, 2006) This study used a custom-built video game to manipulate the subjects’ motivational system activation to compare three different motivational states: appetitive, aversive, and coactive. Predictions for information processing were made based on the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP, Lang 2006a, 2006b). The manipulation of the targeted motivational systems was successful, and the data found general support for the theory. Overall, the findings from this study provide insight to the relationship between motivational system activation and information processing.