PROBING PICTURE PERCEPTION - ACTIVATION AND EMOTION

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.