Irrelevant angry, but not happy, faces interfere with conscious perception under high perceptual load: The role of trait impulsivity

Recent studies suggest that attentional bias towards emotional distractors depends on a task’s perceptual load. The specifics of the interaction of perceptual load in the context of conscious perception and the role of personality traits (i.e., anxiety and impulsivity) in this interaction have not been thoroughly explored. In the present study, we aimed to identify how personality traits affect the allocation of attention to irrelevant angry and happy emotional face stimuli under different attention conditions, which may affect perception. Participants performed a letter-search task, in which they searched for a target (X or N) in a low (circular non-target letters) or high (angular non-target letters) perceptual load condition in the presence of irrelevant emotional faces (happy or angry). Furthermore, in 25% of trials, a meaningless squiggle was presented in the periphery, and participants were required to detect the squiggle. The conscious perception of the squiggle was calculated using the d prime. We measured trait impulsivity with the UPPS-P Impulsive Behaviour scale and trait anxiety with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Results showed that in highly impulsive participants, irrelevant angry faces presented during the high load condition significantly reduced their sensitivity to detecting the squiggle, compared with happy and neutral faces. The findings have theoretical implications for our understanding of the role of personality traits in the interaction between attention and emotions in shaping conscious perception.