Emotional modulation of attention shifting was investigated in Posner's (19
80) spatial orienting task by conditioning the attention cue to an aversive
white noise. Prior to the attention task, the Conditioning group received
a 90 dB white noise unconditioned stimulus (UCS) contingent upon the frame-
lit rectangle attention cue, while the Control group received non-contingen
t presentations. The Conditioning group evidenced greater skin conductance
responses to the frame-lit rectangle in the conditioning phase, reflecting
an electrodermal conditioned response. In the attention phase, the frame-li
t rectangle served as the attention cue in the spatial orienting task. The
Conditioning group showed equally fast reaction times (RTs) to targets pres
ented outside the location of the cue as to targets at the same location as
the cue, reflecting elimination of the cognitive cost usually involved in
shifting attention. The Control group evidenced the regular cost of shiftin
g attention away from the location of the cue. The Conditioning group also
evidenced a larger N1-component with a parietal distribution of the event-r
elated brain potentials to the cue and a larger N1-component at the frontal
regions to targets presented outside the cued location. This suggests that
both visual orienting to the cue and attention shifting from cue to target
on invalid trials were amplified by the emotional salience attached to the
cue through the classical conditioning procedure.