Original Citation: -------------------- Gable, P. A., & Harmon-Jones, E. (2008). Approach-Motivated Positive Affect Reduces Breadth of Attention. Psychological Science, 19(5), 476–482. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02112.x  The original materials were provided by Philip Gable. Aim of replication: -------------------- This is an independent replication of a study, originally conducted by Gable & Harmon-Jones (2008) showing that positive affect high in approach motivation reduces the breadth of attention (i.e., more local than global focus).The replication will include an exact replication of Experiment 2 described in the original paper, comparing positive affect high in approach motivation with neutral affect, as well as a conceptual replication, using culturally adapted affective stimuli and comparing positive affect high in approach motivation, positive affect low in approach motivation and neutral affect within one experiment. Background: -------------------- Mood influences not only what we attend to, but also how we attend to it (Huntsinger, 2013). Converging evidence suggests that negative affective states constrict attentional focus, whereas positive emotions broaden the scope of attention. According to the “broaden-and-built theory” (Fredrickson, 2001), positive affect can in many situations be conceived as a “safety signal” that promotes cognitive flexibility, creativity and the exploration of novel behaviors. For instance, positive affect has been shown to increase cognitive flexibility in a range of tasks, as indicated by activation of remote associates (Bolte, Goschke, & Kuhl, 2003), increased verbal fluency (Phillips, Bull, Adams, & Fraser, 2002), reduced functional fixedness in problem-solving (Gasper, 2003; Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987), improved execution of less automatic responses in face of competing automatic responses (Kuhl & Kazen, 1999), greater global than local processing (Gasper & Clore, 2002), but also decreased inhibition of irrelevant information (Rowe, Hirsh, & Anderson, 2007; for reviews see Bolte & Goschke, 2010; Fiedler, Martin, & Clore, 2001; Fredrickson, 2005; Isen, 2007; Mitchell & Phillips, 2007). However, Gable & Harmon-Jones (2008a) argued that these broadening effects of positive mood on attention can be attributed to low motivational intensity of the affective manipulations, rather than the positive valence. Affective valence, i.e., attractiveness or aversiveness, and motivational direction, i.e., tendency to either avoid or approach, are dimensions characterizing different emotions. Positive affect is characterized by approach motivation, which can be high or low in intensity. The motivational intensity of positive affect was not taken into consideration in previous experiments and an analysis of previously used manipulations, such as watching funny movies or thinking about pleasant memories, has shown that these kinds of stimuli likely created positive mood low in approach motivation. Gable & Harmon-Jones (2008a) hypothesized that positive affect high in motivational intensity (e.g., when pursuing a rewarding goal) would have the opposite effect on attention, namely reduction of the attention breadth. In a series of experiments, they have compared effects of positive affect high in approach motivation vs. low in approach motivation (Experiment 1) and high-approach-motivated positive affect and a neutral condition (Experiment 2). Results confirmed the hypothesis, so that participants in the high-approach-motivated positive mood condition showed less global attentional focus than in the two comparison conditions. The idea proposed by Gable & Harmon-Jones (2008a) has met with great interest and turned out to be very influential for subsequent research on emotions and attention (for a review see Harmon-Jones, Gable, & Price, 2013). The original findings were later extended by research showing that attention-narrowing effects of appetitive stimuli are accompanied by neural activation associated with approach-motivation intensity (Gable & Harmon-Jones, 2009). In another set of studies (Price & Harmon-Jones, 2010), using a different paradigm (a cognitive categorization task (Isen & Daubman, 1984)), approach motivation was manipulated by asking participants to lean forward (high-approach condition), sit straight or recline backward (low-approach condition), while positive valence was manipulated by asking participants to smile while making these movements. Results showed that participants in the high-approach condition were less inclusive in their categorization, suggesting narrower attention scope, than in the neutral and low-approach condition. Further evidence supporting the hypothesis about the modulating role of approach-motivation intensity in the influence of positive affect on cognitive control comes from a study by Liu & Wang (2014). Here, Liu & Wang manipulated the motivational intensity of positive affect and measured the balance between cognitive flexibility and stability, using an attentional-set-shifting paradigm (Dreisbach & Goschke, 2004). They have shown that low-approach-motivated positive affect promoted cognitive flexibility, at the cost of higher distractibility, whereas high-approach-motivated positive affect reduced distractibility, but increased perseverance. However, these results are not unassailable. For instance, Domachowska, Bolte, & Goschke (2014) show that positive affect of high motivational intensity, elicited by erotic pictures, still leads to broader attention, indicated by higher distractibility. Friedman and Förster (2000), using a direct manipulation of approach and avoidance tendencies (embodied manipulation of arm flexion vs. extension), reported that priming approach motivation (by instructing participants to flex their arm) increased the attentional scope, while avoidance motivation decreased it. Another study by Friedman and Förster (2001), in which approach and avoidance motivation was manipulated by instructing participants to lead a mouse out of a maze to either find a piece of cheese (approach condition) or escape a hovering owl (avoidance condition) reported broadened attention scope, measured in a Navon task (1977), after approach prime and narrowed attention scope after avoidance prime. Additionally, there are studies that failed to replicate the effects of positive mood on attention scope altogether (e.g., Bruyneel et al., 2013). In light of those conflicting findings and the fact that most close replications of the original Gable & Harmon-Jones (2008) paradigm stem from the authors’ research group, as well as the impact that this theory has on the current research, we believe that a close replication by an independent research group would help to better test the robustness of the effects. In our replication effort, we will try to emulate as closely as possible the original settings of the experiment and, whenever possible, use the original materials obtained from the authors. However, we are also aware that the cultural differences (the original study was conducted in Texas, USA and the replication will take place in Dresden, Germany) might influence the results. We will therefore, next to using the original affective stimuli, conduct a conceptual replication in which we will use affective stimuli, matched for valence and motivational intensity, that was validated in German-speaking countries (Food-pics, Blechert, Meule, Busch, & Ohla, 2014). This will help to establish potential boundary conditions, as well as help to generalize the original findings. Moreover, in the original paper, the authors compare positive affect high in approach motivation with positive affect low in approach motivation (Experiment 1) and positive affect high in approach motivation with neutral affect (Experiment 2). However, we believe that a direct comparison of these conditions within one experiment could provide better predictions about the generalization of the findings. Thus, in our conceptual replication we will incude stimuli evoking positive affect high in approach motivation, positive affect low in approach motivation and neutral affect.