When acoustic startle probes are presented during picture viewing, the
blink reflex is augmented for unpleasant foreground stimuli and reduc
ed during pleasant stimuli. The present experiment assessed the hypoth
esis that this affect-startle effect increases as pictures are judged
to be more arousing. Eyeblinks elicited by startle probes of three dif
ferent intensities were recorded while subjects viewed pictures varyin
g in both pleasure (pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant) and arousal(low
, moderate, and high). Both blink potentiation during unpleasant conte
nt and blink diminution during pleasant content were clearly strongest
for picture contents high in arousal. The effect was present for all
probe intensities tested.