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The present study investigated how approach-motivated positive affect and emotion regulation alter attentional focus and approach-motivation in a healthy, undergraduate population. Data were collected from 105 (67 females, 38 males) Introductory Psychology students on attentional focus, approach-avoidance tendencies, working memory capacity, resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia, and the quantity of desserts participants selected at the end of the experiment. Previous studies have shown that viewing images of appetitive desserts narrows one’s attentional focus (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2008; Juergensen & Demaree, 2012). The present study provided additional support for this finding; additionally, participants demonstrated faster approach movements in response to these same appetitive dessert images compared to neutral images when completing an Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT). Finally, participants who were asked to down-regulate their natural responses to these appetitive stimuli evidenced a less narrowed attentional focus, a decreased approach bias in response to these images on the AAT, and took less dessert items at the end of the experiment.

This study investigated how approach-motivated positive affect and emotion regulation alters attentional focus in a healthy, undergraduate population. Data were collected from 109 Introductory to Psychology students on attentional focus, working memory capacity, resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia, desire ratings for a series of neutral or dessert images, and snack selections. Confirming previous research by Gable and Harmon-Jones (2008), in comparison to participants who viewed a series of 36 neutral images, participants who viewed images of appetizing desserts had a more local attentional focus on Navon’s (1977) letters task. Those in the positive and negative groups were asked to consider either the positive or negative qualities, respectively, of the dessert images. Participants who considered the negative qualities of the dessert images reported significantly less desire for these items and took significantly more healthy compared to unhealthy snacks. Furthermore, participants in the positive group took significantly more unhealthy snacks.