Integration of same and oppositely valenced affective stimuli under simultaneous presentation conditions

[Extract] The distinction between cognitive and affective stimuli has
been made repeatedly (see, e.g., Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer 1999;
Cohen and Areni 1991; Zajonc and Markus 1982). Although
considerable effort has been placed on the examination of how
cognitive information is integrated (see, e.g., Kardes 2001), research
regarding affect integration is still in its infancy.
Where affect integration has been the focus of study, the
context is one in which there is strong control of the sequence with
which the affective stimuli are presented. Further, prior research
directly examining affect integration (e.g., Ariely 1998; Ariely and
Carmon 2000; Baumgartner, Sujan and Padgett 1997; Kahneman et
al.1993; Fredrickson and Kahneman 1993; Redelmeier and
Kahneman 1996; Varey and Kahneman 1992) has focused exclusively
on the integration of affective stimuli of common valence
(i.e., the integration of positively valenced stimuli or negatively
valenced stimuli, but not both together). This research explores
each of these current limitations.