Affect as a Source of Visual Attention

Affect is a source of visual attention. Psychologists have made a distinctionbetween “affect” and “cognition,” suggesting that the latter operates toguide the organism whereas the former is merely a response. We suggest that this distinction is somewhat artificial and based on unnecessarily rigid conceptualizations, and that, when considering the role of affect in visual attentional processing, affect instead constitutes a source of attention. In the current chapter we will first define affect and attention and outline their neural circuitry. We will then discuss the functional consequences of affect as a source of attention, including the implications for pre-attentive processing, awareness, and attentional control.