Bradley E. Buchanan¹, Laramie L.J. Starling¹, Jacob Zepp², Rachel Gaynor¹, Gavin Heindorf¹, Harold Rocha¹, Chad Dubé¹; ¹University of South Florida, ²University of Zürich

When teaching in front of a class, it helps to get an idea of how the class is feeling so that we may adjust our teaching styles to engage those who may be less interested. However, our processing of group emotion, or Ensemble Emotion Processing (EEP), is not fully developed. More specifically, current models of EEP question the role of attention when making ensemble judgements of emotions. Previous work by Liu and Ji (2024) attempted to characterize the role of attention in EEP without neural markers. They reported the absence of an effect of attentional load on EEP in behavioral markers. In response, we carried out a replication of the author’s task while measuring occipital alpha band (10-12 Hz) suppression, a direct neural marker of selective attention, to assess their findings. Bayesian linear-mixed effects models reveal that increasing attentional loads reduced alpha band suppression but, interestingly, suppression was not modulated by EEP conditions nor was there any interaction of attentional load and EEP on alpha band suppression. These findings suggest that selective attention during EEP may not differ than individual item processing and are similarly affected by increasing attentional loads. Altogether, these findings provide strong evidence that EEP occurs without the need of additional selective attention resources even when selective attention capabilities are limited by load.