Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Playing With Matches: Preparatory Cognitive Processing Shapes Affective Evaluation Cover

Playing With Matches: Preparatory Cognitive Processing Shapes Affective Evaluation

Open Access
|Mar 2026

References

  1. Aarts, K., De Houwer, J., & Pourtois, G. (2012). Evidence for the Automatic Evaluation of Self-Generated Actions. Cognition, 124(2), 11727. 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.05.009
  2. Baayen, R. H., Piepenbrock, R., & Gulikers, L. (1995). The CELEX Lexical Database (Release 2). Distributed by the Linguistic Data Consortium. University of Pennsylvania.
  3. Bamber, D. (1969). Reaction times and error rates for “same”-“different” judgments of multidimensional stimull. Perception & Psychophysics, 6(3), 169174. 10.3758/BF03210087
  4. Braver, T. S. (2012). The variable nature of cognitive control: A dual mechanisms framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(2), 106113. 10.1016/j.tics.2011.12.010
  5. Chetverikov, A., & Kristjánsson, Á. (2016). On the joys of perceiving: Affect as feedback for perceptual predictions. Acta Psychologica, 169, 110. 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.05.005
  6. Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Predictive brains, situated agents, and the future of cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(03), 181204. 10.1017/S0140525X12000477
  7. Cousineau, D., Harding, B., Walker, J. A., Durand, G., T-Groulx, J., Lauzon, S., & Goulet, M.-A. (2023). Analyses of response time data in the same–different task. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue Canadienne de Psychologie Expérimentale, 77(2), 115. 10.1037/cep0000301
  8. Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 7(3), 181185. 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00354.x
  9. Dreisbach, G., & Fischer, R. (2012). Conflicts as aversive signals. Brain and Cognition, 78(2), 9498. 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.12.003
  10. Eder, A. B., Leuthold, H., Rothermund, K., & Schweinberger, S. R. (2012). Automatic response activation in sequential affective priming: An ERP study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7(4), 436445. 10.1093/scan/nsr033
  11. Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G* Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175191. 10.3758/BF03193146
  12. Fazio, R. H. (2001). On the automatic activation of associated evaluations: An overview. Cognition and Emotion, 15(2), 115141. 10.1080/0269993004200024
  13. Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(2), 229. 10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.229
  14. Fritz, J., & Dreisbach, G. (2015). The Time Course of the Aversive Conflict Signal. Experimental Psychology, 62(1), 3039. 10.1027/1618-3169/a000271
  15. Holroyd, C. B., & Coles, M. G. (2002). The neural basis of human error processing: Reinforcement learning, dopamine, and the error-related negativity. Psychological Review, 109(4), 679. 10.1037/0033-295X.109.4.679
  16. Inzlicht, M., Bartholow, B. D., & Hirsh, J. B. (2015). Emotional foundations of cognitive control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(3), 126132. 10.1016/j.tics.2015.01.004
  17. Itkes, O., Kimchi, R., Haj-Ali, H., Shapiro, A., & Kron, A. (2017). Dissociating affective and semantic valence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(7), 924942. 10.1037/xge0000291
  18. Ivanchei, I., Begler, A., Iamschinina, P., Filippova, M., Kuvaldina, M., & Chetverikov, A. (2019). A different kind of pain: Affective valence of errors and incongruence. Cognition and Emotion, 33(5), 10511058. 10.1080/02699931.2018.1520077
  19. Kool, W., & Botvinick, M. (2018). Mental labour. Nature Human Behaviour, 2(12), 899908. 10.1038/s41562-018-0401-9
  20. Kool, W., McGuire, J. T., Rosen, Z. B., & Botvinick, M. M. (2010). Decision making and the avoidance of cognitive demand. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(4), 665682. 10.1037/a0020198
  21. Lang, P. J. (1980). Behavioral treatment and bio-behavioral assessment: Computer applications.
  22. Lindell, T. A. E., Zickfeld, J. H., & Reber, R. (2022). The role of affect in late perceptual processes: Evidence from bi-stable illusions, object identification, and mental rotation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 48(12), 13471361. 10.1037/xhp0001059
  23. Mandler, G. (1982). The structure of value: Accounting for taste. In Affect and cognition (pp. 336). Psychology Press.
  24. Miller, E. K., & Cohen, J. D. (2001). An Integrative Theory of Prefrontal Cortex Function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24(1), 167202. 10.1146/annurev.neuro.24.1.167
  25. Notebaert, W., Houtman, F., Opstal, F. V., Gevers, W., Fias, W., & Verguts, T. (2009). Post-error slowing: An orienting account. Cognition, 111(2), 275279. 10.1016/j.cognition.2009.02.002
  26. Olson, G. M., & Laxar, K. (1973). Asymmetries in processing the terms” right” and” left.”. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 100(2), 284. 10.1037/h0035453
  27. Panksepp, J. (2004). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. Oxford university press. https://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=qqcRGagyEuAC&oi=fnd&pg=PR13&dq=panksepp+emotion&ots=-QL4ZYBdqI&sig=cnYa3NDb7uYmb3I5JviCTfwU1jo
  28. Pauly, M., & Wentura, D. (2025). The “plus polar self”: A reinterpretation of the self-prioritization effect as a polarity correspondence effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 154(3), 672685. 10.1037/xge0001713
  29. Peirce, J., Gray, J. R., Simpson, S., MacAskill, M., Höchenberger, R., Sogo, H., Kastman, E., & Lindeløv, J. K. (2019). PsychoPy2: Experiments in behavior made easy. Behavior Research Methods, 51(1), 195203. 10.3758/s13428-018-01193-y
  30. Pfister, R., & Janczyk, M. (2013). Confidence intervals for two sample means: Calculation, interpretation, and a few simple rules. Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 9(2), 7480. 10.5709/acp-0133-x
  31. Proulx, T., Inzlicht, M., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2012). Understanding all inconsistency compensation as a palliative response to violated expectations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(5), 285291. 10.1016/j.tics.2012.04.002
  32. R Core Team. (2024). R: A language and environment for statistical computing [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
  33. Reber, R., Winkielman, P., & Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Affective Judgments. Psychological Science, 9(1), 4548. 10.1111/1467-9280.00008
  34. Reis, M., & Wirth, R. (2026). Affective evaluation of self-produced action-effect episodes. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, in press.
  35. Rohr, M., & Wentura, D. (2022). How Emotion Relates to Language and Cognition, Seen Through the Lens of Evaluative Priming Paradigms. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 911068. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.911068
  36. Russell, J. A. (2003). Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion. Psychological Review, 110(1), 145172. 10.1037/0033-295X.110.1.145
  37. Schouppe, N., Braem, S., De Houwer, J., Silvetti, M., Verguts, T., Ridderinkhof, K. R., & Notebaert, W. (2015). No pain, no gain: The affective valence of congruency conditions changes following a successful response. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 15(1), 251261. 10.3758/s13415-014-0318-3
  38. Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18(6), 643. 10.1037/h0054651
  39. Summerfield, C., Egner, T., Greene, M., Koechlin, E., Mangels, J., & Hirsch, J. (2006). Predictive Codes for Forthcoming Perception in the Frontal Cortex. Science, 314(5803), 13111314. 10.1126/science.1132028
  40. Trapp, S. (2017). Commentary: On the joys of perceiving: Affect as feedback for perceptual predictions. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 11, 556. 10.3389/fnins.2017.00556
  41. Treisman, A., & Gormican, S. (1988). Feature analysis in early vision: Evidence from search asymmetries. Psychological Review, 95(1), 15. 10.1037/0033-295X.95.1.15
  42. Walker, J. A., & Cousineau, D. (2019). Into the Mind’s Eye: Exploring the Fast-Same Effect in the Same-Different Task. The American Journal of Psychology, 132(4), 42137. 10.5406/amerjpsyc.132.4.0421
  43. Warriner, A. B., Kuperman, V., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Norms of Valence, Arousal, and Dominance for 13,915 English Lemmas. Behavior Research Methods, 45(4), 11911207. 10.3758/s13428-012-0314-x
  44. Weeks, D. J., & Proctor, R. W. (1990). Salient-features coding in the translation between orthogonal stimulus and response dimensions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 119(4), 355. 10.1037/0096-3445.119.4.355
  45. Westbrook, A., Kester, D., & Braver, T. S. (2013). What Is the Subjective Cost of Cognitive Effort? Load, Trait, and Aging Effects Revealed by Economic Preference. PLoS ONE, 8(7), e68210. 10.1371/journal.pone.0068210
  46. Wilson, W. R. (1979). Feeling more than we can know: Exposure effects without learning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(6), 811821. 10.1037/0022-3514.37.6.811
  47. Winkielman, P., Halberstadt, J., Fazendeiro, T., & Catty, S. (2006). Prototypes Are Attractive Because They Are Easy on the Mind. Psychological Science, 17(9), 799806. 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01785.x
  48. Wirth, R., Foerster, A., Rendel, H., Kunde, W., & Pfister, R. (2018). Rule-violations sensitise towards negative and authority-related stimuli. Cognition and Emotion, 32(3), 480493. 10.1080/02699931.2017.1316706
  49. Wirth, R., & Jall, M. (2026). The emotional economics of dishonesty. Cognition and Emotion, 114. 10.1080/02699931.2026.2614308
  50. Yagi, Y., Ikoma, S., & Kikuchi, T. (2009). Attentional modulation of the mere exposure effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(6), 14031410. 10.1037/a0017396
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.496 | Journal eISSN: 2514-4820
Language: English
Submitted on: Oct 27, 2025
|
Accepted on: Mar 20, 2026
|
Published on: Mar 31, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Patrick P. Weis, Wilfried Kunde, Robert Wirth, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.