How many pleasures can you track? In a previous study, we showed that people can simultaneously track the pleasure they experience from two images. Here, we push further, probing the individual and combined pleasures felt from seeing four images in one glimpse. Participants (N = 25) viewed 36 images spanning the entire range of pleasure. Each trial presented an array of four images, one in each quadrant of the screen, for 200 ms. On 80% of the trials, a central line cue pointed, randomly, at some screen corner either before (precue) or after (postcue) the images were shown. The cue indicated which image (the target) to rate while ignoring the others (distractors). On the other 20% of trials, an X cue requested a rating of the combined pleasure of all four images. Later, for baseline reference, we obtained a single-pleasure rating for each image shown alone. When precued, participants faithfully reported the pleasure of the target. When postcued, however, the mean ratings of images that are intensely pleasurable when seen alone (pleasure >4.5 on a 1–9 scale) dropped below baseline. Regardless of cue timing, the rating of the combined pleasure of four images was a linear transform of the average baseline pleasures of all four images. Thus, while people can faithfully track two pleasures, they cannot track four. Instead, the pleasure of otherwise above-medium-pleasure images is diminished, mimicking the effect of a distracting task.

你能追踪多少快乐？在之前的一项研究中，我们表明人们可以同时跟踪他们从两张图像中体验到的愉悦感。在这里，我们更进一步，探索一下从四个图像中感受到的个人和综合乐趣。参与者 ( N= 25) 观看了 36 张图像，涵盖了整个愉悦范围。每次试验都呈现一组四张图像，在屏幕的每个象限中显示一个，持续 200 毫秒。在 80% 的试验中，在显示图像之前（precue）或之后（postcue），中心线提示随机指向某个屏幕角落。提示指示要评价哪个图像（目标）而忽略其他图像（干扰者）。在另外 20% 的试验中，X 提示要求对所有四个图像的综合愉悦度进行评级。后来，作为基线参考，我们为每张单独显示的图像获得了单一的愉悦评级。当预兆时，参与者忠实地报告了目标的乐趣。然而，当进行后期提示时，单独观看时非常令人愉悦的图像的平均评分（在 1-9 级中愉悦度 >4.5）下降到基线以下。无论提示时机如何，四张图像的组合愉悦度的评级是所有四张图像的平均基线愉悦度的线性变换。因此，虽然人们可以忠实地追踪两种快乐，但他们无法追踪四种。取而代之的是，其他高于中等愉悦度的图像的愉悦感减弱了，模仿了分散注意力的任务的效果。