ArticleFrontiers in psychology2015
Arousal and exposure duration affect forward step initiation.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reward and avoidance learning in the context of aversive environments and possible implications for depressive symptoms.Psychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Differences in gait kinematics and spatiotemporal parameters among different Big Five personality types under emotional states: a three-dimensional motion capture study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Measuring Arousal: Promises and Pitfalls.Affective science · 2025Review
- Investigating approach/avoidance tendencies in male AUD patients through a gait initiation task: An exploratory posturography study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- Task-relevant social cues affect whole-body approach-avoidance behavior.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Perception of Emotion and Postural Stability Control at Different Distances.Journal of eye movement research · 2022Article
- Article
- Sexual attraction modulates interpersonal distance and approach-avoidance movements towards virtual agents in males.PloS one · 2020Article
- Initiation of forward gait with lateral occurrence of emotional stimuli: general findings and relevance for pedestrians crossing roads.Experimental brain research · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Emotion influences parameters of goal-directed whole-body movements in several ways. For instance, previous research has shown that approaching (moving toward) pleasant stimuli is easier compared to approaching unpleasant stimuli. However, some studies found that when emotional pictures are viewed for a longer time, approaching unpleasant stimuli may in fact be facilitated. The effect of viewing duration may have modulated whole-body approach movement in previous research but this has not been investigated to date. In the current study, participants initiated a step forward after viewing neutral, high-arousal pleasant and high-arousal unpleasant stimuli. The viewing duration of the stimuli was set to seven different durations, varying from 100 to 4000 ms. Valence and arousal scores were collected for all stimuli. The results indicate that both viewing duration and the arousal of the stimuli influence kinematic parameters in forward gait initiation. Specifically, longer viewing duration, compared to shorter viewing duration, (a) diminished the step length and peak velocity in both neutral and emotional stimuli, (b) increased reaction time in neutral stimuli and, (c) decreased reaction time in pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. Strikingly, no differences were found between high-arousal pleasant and high-arousal unpleasant stimuli. In other words, the valence of the stimuli did not influence kinematic parameters of forward step initiation. Instead the arousal level (neutral: low; pleasant and unpleasant: high) explained the variance found in the results. The kinematics of forward gait initiation seemed to be reflected in the subjective arousal scores, but not the valence scores. So it seems arousal affects forward gait initiation parameters more strongly than valence. In addition, longer viewing duration seemed to cause diminished alertness, affecting GI parameters. These results shed new light on the prevailing theoretical interpretations regarding approach motivation in the literature, which warrants further examination in future research.
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