An Experimental Study on Relationship Between Subliminal Emotion and Implicit Sequence Learning: Evidence from Eye Movements

The relationship between emotion and implicit sequence learning is one of the basic question in the fields of implicit learning. The current study adopted serial reaction time (SRT) task paradigm and eye-movement technology to explore the effect of emotion on implicit learning. A one-factor between-subjects experimental design was used, with subliminal emotion (positive vs. negative) as between-subjects variable. Dependent measure was saccadic reaction time. Results were showed as follows: (1) saccadic reaction time was less in positive emotion group than negative emotion group; (2) saccadic reaction time was decreasing with increasing blocks; (3) there was significant interaction between group and block, and simple effect analysis indicated that the saccadic reaction time in positive emotion group was decreasing with increasing blocks, while there was no significant block effect in negative emotion group; (4) the amount of implicit sequence leaning was significantly higher in positive emotion group than negative emotion group. The findings suggest that positive emotion promote implicit sequence learning