Positive affect broadens the scope of attentional selection, enhancing access to remote semantic associations and impairing visual selective attention. This study examined how positive mood influences cognitive domains, including semantic search (remote associates task) and visual selective attention (Eriksen flanker task). Positive affect increased semantic access, suggesting a broader scope of conceptual processing, while it impaired visual selective attention by increasing processing of spatially adjacent distractors, indicating a broader scope of visuospatial attention. These findings suggest that positive affect reduces inhibitory control, leading to a broader allocation of attention to both external visual and internal conceptual space. The "broaden-and-build" theory of positive emotions suggests that positive affect increases cognitive flexibility and creativity. Positive mood enhances creative problem-solving, as seen in the remote associates task, where individuals in positive mood solved more word associations. Positive affect also influences attentional processing, with evidence showing that positive mood increases global processing and decreases local processing. This aligns with the "affect-as-information" framework, where positive moods enhance access to relevant information during tasks. In the Eriksen flanker task, positive mood resulted in greater flanker interference, indicating impaired selective attention. This was associated with increased processing of spatially adjacent distractors, suggesting a broader scope of attention. The relationship between positive mood and attentional breadth was further supported by the correlation between enhanced semantic access and impaired visual selective attention. These findings suggest that positive affect broadens attentional scope, facilitating access to a wider range of information, but at the expense of selective attention. The study also examined individual differences in attentional processing, finding that those with greater semantic access under positive mood exhibited more pronounced visuospatial attentional breadth. This suggests a common underlying mechanism for attentional processing influenced by positive affect. The findings support the idea that positive affect broadens attentional scope, enhancing creativity and cognitive flexibility, while impairing selective attention. This shift in attentional focus may reflect a relaxation of inhibitory control, leading to a more open and exploratory mode of information processing.Positive affect broadens the scope of attentional selection, enhancing access to remote semantic associations and impairing visual selective attention. This study examined how positive mood influences cognitive domains, including semantic search (remote associates task) and visual selective attention (Eriksen flanker task). Positive affect increased semantic access, suggesting a broader scope of conceptual processing, while it impaired visual selective attention by increasing processing of spatially adjacent distractors, indicating a broader scope of visuospatial attention. These findings suggest that positive affect reduces inhibitory control, leading to a broader allocation of attention to both external visual and internal conceptual space. The "broaden-and-build" theory of positive emotions suggests that positive affect increases cognitive flexibility and creativity. Positive mood enhances creative problem-solving, as seen in the remote associates task, where individuals in positive mood solved more word associations. Positive affect also influences attentional processing, with evidence showing that positive mood increases global processing and decreases local processing. This aligns with the "affect-as-information" framework, where positive moods enhance access to relevant information during tasks. In the Eriksen flanker task, positive mood resulted in greater flanker interference, indicating impaired selective attention. This was associated with increased processing of spatially adjacent distractors, suggesting a broader scope of attention. The relationship between positive mood and attentional breadth was further supported by the correlation between enhanced semantic access and impaired visual selective attention. These findings suggest that positive affect broadens attentional scope, facilitating access to a wider range of information, but at the expense of selective attention. The study also examined individual differences in attentional processing, finding that those with greater semantic access under positive mood exhibited more pronounced visuospatial attentional breadth. This suggests a common underlying mechanism for attentional processing influenced by positive affect. The findings support the idea that positive affect broadens attentional scope, enhancing creativity and cognitive flexibility, while impairing selective attention. This shift in attentional focus may reflect a relaxation of inhibitory control, leading to a more open and exploratory mode of information processing.