Effect of facial stimuli exposure time on evaluation of facial attractiveness

Facial attractiveness has advantages both socially and sexually, and the human brain has evolved to perceive specific facial characteristics as attractive. The current research examined the effect of facial stimuli exposure time on facial attractiveness evaluations. In Experiment 1, 86 students observed 44 facial stimuli in short and long amounts of time. To eliminate any influence of repeated stimuli on the second observations, Experiment 2 was performed on 84 participants who observed the facial stimuli in either short or long durations. Differences in both experiments were significant. These studies showed that exposure time has an influence on the evaluation of facial attractiveness. Participants who were exposed to facial stimuli for a short amount of time perceived greater facial attractiveness than when they were exposed for a longer time to the same stimuli. In other words, faces were more beautiful when they were observed in a short amount of time, and this effect occurred regardless of gender.     

面孔吸引力的整体表征及其动态性增强

面孔作为一种高级的视觉刺激,在人际交往中有着无可替代的作用。其中,面孔吸引力更是影响着日常生活的重要社交决策,如择偶、交友、求职、社会交换等。长久以来,研究者们从面孔特征、社会信息和观察者因素等角度不断探索着人们对静态面孔吸引力的感知,且多从进化角度加以解释。但是,人们如何表征面孔吸引力以及其动态性增强机制仍未可知。本项目通过两个研究,分别从面孔吸引力的整体表征,以及面孔动态性通过影响整体加工、影响对整体信息和特征信息的注意、以及影响社会信息来增强吸引力,从这两个角度尝试回答这一问题。在研究1中,本项目从整体加工的角度探索了面孔吸引力的认知表征。研究1.1通过评分任务和适应范式探索高空间频率（更多局部特征）和低空间频率（更多整体特征）对面孔吸引力的影响,旨在从空间频率探讨面孔吸引力的整体表征。研究1.2通过操纵面孔对称性和面孔常态性探索面孔常态性在面孔对称性和面孔吸引力间的中介作用,探讨面孔吸引力的常态构型表征。研究1.3引入“三庭五眼”这一中国传统面孔审美理论,通过评分任务和适应范式研究“三庭五眼” 构型是否符合中国人对高吸引力中国面孔的表征,以此探讨面孔吸引力的整体表征。研究1.4通过评分任务和适应范式考察局部面孔遮挡是否促进整体面孔吸引力,以及这种促进作用是否由于人们通过局部特征“脑补”出了完整面孔。研究2从整体加工、注意和生命力的角度探讨面孔吸引力的动态性增强机制。研究2.1使用合成效应范式测量动态面孔吸引力的整体加工,探索动静态面孔的吸引力差异是否源于其整体加工程度的不同。研究2.2使用注意分散范式,并结合眼动技术,探讨人们对动静态面孔的注视模式是否存在差异,这种差异是否能解释动态面孔吸引力的增强。研究2.3结合问卷法、实验法和结构方程模型,考察了生命力这一社会因素对动静态面孔吸引力的影响。本项目探讨了面孔吸引力的认知表征以及其动态性增强机制,有助于我们进一步理解人们对面孔吸引力的认知加工以及人类欣赏美这一高级智能。同时,本项目的结果对于日常人际交往和面孔吸引力相关算法的优化等方面也有潜在的应用价值。     

Temporal shifts in eye gaze and facial expressions independently contribute to the perceived attractiveness of unfamiliar faces

ABSTRACT

We investigated whether attractiveness ratings of expressive faces would be affected by gaze shifts towards or away from the observer. In all experiments, effects of facial expression were found, with higher attractiveness ratings to positive over negative expressions, irrespective of effects of gaze-shifts. In the first experiment faces with gaze shifts away from the observer were preferred. However, when the dynamics of the gaze shift was disrupted, by adding an intermediate delay, the effect of direction of gaze shift disappeared. By manipulating the relative duration of each gaze direction during a gaze shift we found higher attractiveness ratings to faces with a longer duration of direct gaze, particularly in the initial exposure to a face. Our findings suggest that although the temporal dynamics of eye gaze and facial expressions influence the aesthetic evaluation of faces, these cues appear to act independently rather than in an integrated manner for social perception.     

The moderating role of early traumatic experiences on the association of schizotypal traits with visual perception

The findings on the association of schizotypal traits with the perception of visual illusions are scarce and inconsistent and have not taken into consideration potential effects of childhood traumatic experiences, a risk factor for schizophrenia-spectrum conditions. Thus, the present study addressed the question of potential moderating effects of early traumatic experiences on the association between different aspects of schizotypal traits with the perception of the Müller-Lyer and Navon's Hierarchical Letters (NHL) illusions. The study revealed that (a) increased suspiciousness was associated with increased liability to the Müller-Lyer illusion, when the exposure to traumatic events was high, whereas the opposite pattern was true when the exposure to traumatic events was low; (b) negative schizotypy was associated with more accurate global perception, and high disorganized schizotypy was associated with superior accuracy when target letters were present during the NHL illusion, when early traumatic experiences were at lower levels; and (c) high negative, disorganized, and total schizotypy were associated with lower accuracy when target letters were present in the NHL paradigm, when early traumatic experiences were at higher levels. The findings of the study suggest that early traumatic events differentially moderate the relationship between various aspects of schizotypal traits and visual perceptual processing.     

Processing of facial and non‐facial visual stimuli in 2–5‐year‐old children

The present experiments examined the degree to which analytic and holistic modes of processing play a role in the way 2–5‐year‐old children process facial and non‐facial visual stimuli. Children between 2 and 5 years of age were instructed to categorize faces (in Experiment 1) and non‐facial visual stimuli, such as birds and planes (in Experiment 2), into two categories. The categories were so constructed as to allow the children to categorize the facial and non‐facial stimuli either analytically (by focusing on a single attribute) or holistically (in terms of overall similarity). The results demonstrated that the previous conclusions concerning older children's (from 6 years onwards) holistic mode of facial processing could not be generalized to younger children because most of the 2–5‐year olds processed the faces by taking single facial attributes into account. A similar pattern of results emerged for the processing of objects, showing that the majority of the children focused on single attributes. Thus, for both visual domains, holistic processing was the exception rather than the rule. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The relationship between self‐perception of physical attractiveness and sexual bullying in early adolescence

The relationship between self‐perception of physical attractiveness and four measures of sexual bullying behavior (victimization, perpetration, having friends who sexually bully, and observation of sexual bullying among peers at school) was examined in a sample of 396 middle school age students. Students who perceived themselves to be more physically attractive than their peers reported sexually bullying others more, being sexually bullied by others more, observing more sexual bullying, and having more friends who sexually bully others than did students who perceived themselves as average looking. In addition, males who perceived themselves to be less physically attractive than their peers reported being victimized more and reported observing more sexual bullying in the school environment. These findings highlight the importance of physical attractiveness in the early initiation of sexual harassment. Implications for future research and interventions with early adolescents are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 36:271–281, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The recognition of emotional prosody in students with blindness: Effects of early visual experience and age development

This study examined the role of early visual experience and age in the recognition of emotional prosody among students with visual impairments in China. A total of 75 primary and junior high school students participated in the study. The ability of participants to recognize the prosody of four basic emotions (sadness, anger, happiness, and neutrality) was explored. The findings were as follows. (1) Early visual experience had a significant effect on the recognition of emotional prosody. The accuracy rate of students with congenital blindness was lower than that of students with adventitious blindness, and the performance of students with congenital blindness was lower than that of sighted students. The students with congenital blindness exhibited the slowest recognition speeds. (2) Age had a significant effect on the emotional prosody recognition accuracy of the sighted students, but it had no effect on the students with blindness.     

Time course of selective attention to face regions in social anxiety: eye-tracking and computational modelling

ABSTRACT

We investigated the time course of selective attention to face regions during judgment of dis/approval by low (LSA) and high (HSA) social anxiety undergraduates (with clinical levels on questionnaire measures). The viewers’ gaze direction was assessed and the stimulus visual saliency of face regions was computed, for video-clips displaying dynamic facial expressions. Social anxiety was related to perception of disapproval from faces with an ambiguous smile (i.e. with non-happy eyes), but not those with congruent happy eyes and a smile. HSA observers selectively looked earlier at the eye region, whereas LSA ones preferentially looked at the smiling mouth. Consistently, gaze allocation was less related to visual saliency of the smile for HSA than for LSA viewers. The attentional bias towards the less salient eye region – thus opposing the automatic capture by the smile – suggests that it is strategically driven in HSA individuals, possibly aimed at detecting negative evaluators.