Generalization Effect of Conditioned Sadness: ...

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to explore electrophysiological correlates of conditioned sadness and happiness generalization processing in a classical conditioning paradigm when subjects performed a simple number estimation task during post-conditioning phase. Three emotion conditions (happy, neutral, and sad) were examined, each of which contained two phases: a conditioning phase and a post-conditioning phase. During conditioning phase of each emotion condition, we presented 56 three-digit-numbers (i.e. conditioned numbers) which were paired respectively with 56 facial expressions containing one emotion one by one; participants were instructed to attempt, to the best of their ability, to study and remember the number while ignoring the facial expression as much as possible.