Highlights•Positive affect leads to more cognitive flexibility and broadened attention.•These
effects depend on concurrent levels of approach motivation.•Affect and motivation
synergistically influence attention and cognitive control.Positive affect has been linked to
increased flexibility in disparate domains, however, conclusions across these domains are
still missing. In this review, we focus on flexibility studied in the context of cognitive control
and attention, where striking similarities are observed. Positive affect increases flexibility and …

Positive affect has been linked to increased flexibility in disparate domains, however,
conclusionsacrossthesedomainsarestill missing. Inthisreview,
wefocusonflexibilitystudiedinthe contextofcognitive controlandattention, wherestriking
similaritiesareobserved. Positive affectincreasesflexibilityand
broadensattentionatthecostofstability orgoalmaintenance. Importantly,
theseeffectsareassociatedwithlow levelsof approachmotivation …