Influence of Affective State Priming on Effortful Decision Making: Image versus Words

Abstract

Understanding how affective states have an impact on effortful decision making is crucial for the advancement of cognitive and applied psychology. Affect states are known to shape attention, memory,and other executive functions, yet their impact specifically on the perceived effort and willingness to engage on challenging or difficult tasks remain under-explored. Previous research has established that positive and negative affect state modulate cognitive flexibility and risk-taking, there is limited knowledge regarding how different modalities of affect (visual vs semantic)influence effort-based decisions, particularly in young adults.is thesis aims to investigate the effects of positive affect and its arousal levels- induced using visual (images) and semantic (words) stimuli- on effortful decision making. The study seeks to determine how these affective states shape judgments of task difficulty and willingness to exert effort. A within-subjects experimental decision was employed where the participants, of age range 18-25 (mean age ≈ 22), were exposed to standardized image and word stimuli using an Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task. Their subjective ratings for valence and intensity along with their choice and effort exerted in the task were recorded and analyzed. The results reveal that affective states, particularly negative affect, significantly reduced the participants willingness to choose high effort/ high reward tasks, while positive affect showed more flexible decision making. Additionally, the modality of the stimulus (images vs words) independently influenced the risk propensity and task performance, with images showing more affective responses than words. These results suggest that both affect and the modality play a critical roles in shaping how individuals approach effortful decision making.