The emotion hypothesis of startle eyeblink modification posits that potentiated eyeblinks are observed in response to fear/disgust (aversive) pictures and eyeblink inhibition occurs in response to pleasant (appetitive) pictures due to the degree to which the stimuli match with the aversive startle probe. Stimuli high in arousal elicit exaggerated responses. Four studies sought to investigate the effect of angering pictures on the startle eyeblink response. Three potential hypotheses were posed: 1) given anger's high levels of arousal and negativity, eyeblinks will be potentiated like those to fear/disgust pictures; 2) given anger's arousing and appetitive qualities, eyeblinks will be inhibited like those to pleasant pictures; 3) anger's arousal, negativity, and approach qualities will balance each other out causing eyeblinks resembling those in response to neutral pictures. Study 1 supported the third hypothesis in that eyeblinks to angering and neutral pictures did not differ, despite angering pictures being rated higher on arousal and anger and lower in valence. These results replicated in Study 2 with a different set of angering pictures. Also, Study 2 demonstrated that dysphoric participants exhibited potentiated eyeblinks during angering pictures much like eyeblinks during fear/disgust stimuli, whereas non-dysphoric participants did not. Ratings of pictures on arousal, valence, and anger did not differ between groups. Constructive patriotism related to inhibited eyeblinks during angering pictures. Study 3 found that dysphoric participants rated angering pictures higher in fear than did non-dysophoric participants, suggesting that the potentiated eyeblinks observed in Study 2 were a result of greater perceived fear. Study 4 again showed that eyeblinks during angering and neutral pictures did not differ, and that constructive patriotism related to inhibited eyeblinks. Taken together, results are consistent with the third hypothesis and suggest that angering stimuli elicit eyeblinks much like those to neutral stimuli due to the competing influences of arousal, valence, and motivation on the startle eyeblink reflex.

Research has shown alcohol expectancies to be critically important in understanding maladaptive drinking patterns within alcohol use disorders. Alcohol expectancies, thought to be automatically elicited in the presence of environmental alcohol-related cues, represent both cognitive and affective associations with drinking behavior. However, the automatic and affective properties of alcohol expectancies have not yet been thoroughly measured in the literature. Psychophysiological measures, including skin conductance, heart rate, and the acoustic startle response in particular, offer a uniquely powerful set of indices for the automatic affective processing of alcohol-related cues. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine how alcohol expectancies moderate affective processing of alcohol cues and how they relate to other known risk variables for alcohol use disorders.Fifty-eight college-aged participants viewed pictures from three categories (neutral, alcohol-nonsocial, and alcohol-social) and gave subjective ratings of valence, arousal, dominance, and craving for each cue. Skin conductance, heart rate and startle responses were obtained during picture viewing. The startle eyeblink reflex was probed early in the picture viewing sequence to assess arousing and attentional cue properties and late in order to address affective and motivational cue properties.Analyses indicated that participants reporting more positive, arousing, and social alcohol expectancies rated alcohol cues as more pleasant, arousing and craving-inducing. Individuals with greater positive/arousing alcohol expectancies displayed blunted cardiac deceleration during alcohol-related cues, indicating that they processed these cues as less aversive than other participants. In addition, individuals with greater social alcohol expectancies displayed greater skin conductance response to alcohol-related cues, indicating increased arousal during alcohol pictures. Startle response patterns indicated that individuals at greater risk for alcohol use disorders (i.e. family history positive, greater positive/arousing alcohol expectancies) displayed blunted processing of alcohol-related cues, while individuals at lower risk processed alcohol-related cues as more pleasing and attention-grabbing. Ultimately, alcohol-related cues were processed as more pleasing and appetitive among lower-risk individuals, lending support to affective and automatic processing component of alcohol expectancy theory. This study also lends further evidence to support blunted affective processing of alcohol-related stimuli among high risk individuals.