Recognition and Interpretation of Facial Expressions in Dysphoric Women

Two studies are presented that evaluate emotion recognition accuracy and interpretative processing of facial expressions in relation to depressive symptoms in women. Dysphoric women more often attributed themselves as the cause of negative expressions, more often made negative interpretations of others’ thoughts, and had more negative thoughts about themselves when viewing facial expressions. However, dysphoric women were not less accurate or rapid in recognizing facial expressions. An integrative model, the “levels of self-processing view,” is discussed as a synthesis of the results across studies. Limitations of the current studies and future research directions are discussed.     

“Tears of joy” & “smiles of joy” prompt distinct patterns of interpersonal emotion regulation

Close relationship partners often respond to happiness expressed through smiles with capitalization, i.e. they join in attempting to up-regulate and prolong the individual’s positive emotion, and they often respond to crying with interpersonal down-regulation of negative emotions, attempting to dampen the negative emotions. We investigated how people responded when happiness was expressed through tears, an expression termed dimorphous. We hypothesised that the physical expression of crying would prompt interpersonal down-regulation of emotion when the onlooker perceived that the expresser was experiencing negative or positive emotions. When participants were asked how they would behave when faced with smiles of joy, we expected capitalization responses, and when faced with tears of joy, we expected down-regulation responses. In six experimental studies using video and photographic stimuli, we found support for our hypotheses. Throughout our investigations we test and discuss boundaries of and possible mechanisms for such responsiveness.     

喜极而泣——积极情绪的二态表达

积极情绪的二态表达(the dimorphous expressions of positive emotion;DEPE),指当个体处于强烈的积极体验时,这种积极体验不仅诱发了与之相对应的积极表达,而且伴随着消极的外显表现,喜极而泣便是其中的典型。DEPE蕴含了一般情绪现象产生的基本过程,但又和其他情绪现象(如,\"悲喜交加\"和\"乐极生悲\")具有本质性区别。未来研究可以运用各类新近技术,进一步细化和完善其理论模型,从不同视角考察影响DEPE产生的因素,并探讨DEPE中消极表达在人际间所起到的功能及其机制。     

不同情绪载体的神经活动及其异同——脑成像研究的ALE元分析

情绪识别一直是学界关注的热点。虽然已有研究探讨了动态面孔表情、动态身体表情和声音情绪的脑机制, 但对每种情绪载体的整体认识相对不完善, 同时对不同情绪载体之间神经机制的共性和区别知之甚少。因此, 本研究首先通过三项独立的激活似然估计元分析来识别每种情绪模式的大脑激活区域, 然后进行对比分析以评估三种情绪载体之间共同的和独特的神经活动。结果显示, 动态面孔表情的大脑活动包括广泛的额叶、枕叶、颞叶和部分顶叶皮层以及海马、小脑、丘脑、杏仁核等皮层下区域; 动态身体表情的激活集中于颞/枕叶相关脑区以及小脑和海马; 声音情绪则引起了颞叶、额叶、杏仁核、尾状核和脑岛的激活。联合分析表明, 三种情绪载体跨模态激活了左侧颞中回和右侧颞上回。对比分析的结果证明了视觉刺激比听觉刺激更占优势, 动态面孔表情尤为突出, 同时动态身体表情也发挥着重要作用, 但声音情绪有其独特性。总之, 这些发现验证和拓展了三种情绪载体的现有神经模型, 揭示了情绪处理中心的、普遍性的区域, 但每种情绪载体又有自己可靠的特异性神经回路。     

情绪体验影响估算策略运用的认知与脑机制

揭示情绪体验影响个体完成各种认知任务的认知神经机制是研究者关注的热点问题。以往研究主要采用问卷法和行为实验, 集中考察了焦虑对估算策略运用的影响, 但这种影响潜在的脑机制尚不清楚, 对焦虑以外的情绪体验与估算策略运用之间关系的研究也极其缺乏, 而情绪调节对估算策略运用影响方面的研究基本处于空白。本研究将采用面孔表情图片作为情绪刺激材料, 结合事件相关电位(event related potential, ERP)技术, 采用启动范式, 尝试从外显和内隐两个角度, 考察不同效价的情绪体验在估算策略运用过程中所起的作用, 进而揭示情绪调节影响估算策略执行的时间动态特征和大脑激活模式。这将有助于充分认识情绪体验影响估算策略运用的认知与脑机制, 为更好的优化估算策略运用效果提供实证依据。     

Knowing me,knowing you: emotion differentiation in oneself is associated with recognition of others’ emotions

ABSTRACT

Previous research has found that individuals vary greatly in emotion differentiation, that is, the extent to which they distinguish between different emotions when reporting on their own feelings. Building on previous work that has shown that emotion differentiation is associated with individual differences in intrapersonal functions, the current study asks whether emotion differentiation is also related to interpersonal skills. Specifically, we examined whether individuals who are high in emotion differentiation would be more accurate in recognising others’ emotional expressions. We report two studies in which we used an established paradigm tapping negative emotion differentiation and several emotion recognition tasks. In Study 1 (N?=?363), we found that individuals high in emotion differentiation were more accurate in recognising others’ emotional facial expressions. Study 2 (N?=?217), replicated this finding using emotion recognition tasks with varying amounts of emotional information. These findings suggest that the knowledge we use to understand our own emotional experience also helps us understand the emotions of others.     

无意识情绪对建议接受的影响

以101名大学生为被试,用掩蔽刺激启动无意识情绪,探讨无意识情绪对建议接受程度的影响,并分析自信度在其中的作用.结果表明:(1)相较于中性情绪,无意识正性情绪或无意识负性情绪会使个体更倾向于采纳他人建议,且无意识负性情绪的作用更明显;(2)个体的自信度水平在情绪和建议接受度之间具有调节作用;(3)在接受建议后,无意识负性情绪和无意识正性情绪组个体的自信度提升量高于中性情绪组,且无意识负性情绪组提高更多.     

Varieties of Anger: The Relation Between Emotion Terms and Components of Anger Expressions

Component theory (C. Smith & H. Scott, 1997) predicts that presence of component movements (action units) alters the decoded meaning of a basic emotional expression. We tested whether the meaning of the basic expression of anger varied when different components were present in the expression. Participants were asked to label variants of anger from Ekman and Friesen's Pictures of Facial Affect using 15 anger terms, and invariance of labeling was tested by manipulating the judgment task. Data were analyzed using consensus analysis, multidimensional scaling, and numerical scaling. Components did not result in consensus about fine distinctions in the meanings of the anger expressions. Varying the type of task strongly affected results. We believe this occurred because language elicits different categorization processes than evaluation of facial expressions nonverbally.     

背景颜色对中性面孔情绪识别的影响:隐喻的视角

为考察背景颜色对中性面孔情绪识别的影响及时间特征,采用混合实验设计,背景颜色为组内变量,呈现时间为组间变量,要求被试报告对中性面孔的愉快体验及其程度。结果发现:(1)背景颜色主效应显著,相较于冷色调,暖色调背景下,中性面孔愉快感知百分比更高,愉快程度评定分数也更高。(2)颜色和时间的交互作用不存在显著差异。这表明,背景颜色影响个体对中性面孔图片的情绪识别,且该效应在不同时间进程下均存在。