The effects of false feedback on attributed arousal and rated attractiveness in female subjects1

In an expanded version of the Valins false feedback paradigm, female subjects viewed ten slides of seminude males accompanied by either an increase or no change in amplified heart beats. Heart rate increase slides were rated as both more attractive and more arousing than no-change slides. These two measures were highly correlated, and did not differ significantly in the degree to which they were influenced by feedback. Subjects also showed significantly greater changes in actual heart rate for the increasing feedback slides than for the no-change slides, although the feedback produced no corresponding differences in GSR. Despite the effects on both subjective report and cardiac activity, correlations between these two measures were generally nonsignificant. Subjects classified as high in autonomic perception showed no significant relationship between actual cardiac activity and slide ratings, nor were they more influenced in their ratings by the feedback than subjects low in autonomic perception. Implications for the false feedback paradigm and for current issues in the social psychology and psychophysiology of emotion are discussed.     

Opportunity for information search and the effect of false heart rate feedback

The role of information search in the attribution of physiological states was investigated by manipulating the subject’s opportunity for information search following the presentation of false information about his heart-rate reactions to photographs of female nudes. Consistent with the self-persuasion hypothesis proposed by Valins, the rated attractiveness of the slides was not affected by the false heart-rate feedback for those subjects who were prevented from visually searching the slides. Those subjects who had ample opportunity to view the slides rated those slides accompanied by false information of a heart-rate change as more attractive than those slides which were not paired with a change in heart rate.     

Opportunity for Information Search and the Effect of False Heart Rate Feedback

The role of information search in the attribution of physiological states was investigated by manipulating the subject's opportunity for information search following the presentation of false information about his heart-rate reactions to photographs of female nudes. Consistent with the self-persuasion hypothesis proposed by Valins, the rated attractiveness of the slides was not affected by the false heart-rate feedback for those subjects who were prevented from visually searching the slides. Those subjects who had ample opportunity to view the slides rated those slides accompanied by false information of a heart-rate change as more attractive than those slides which were not paired with a change in heart rate.     

False autonomic feedback: Effects of attention to feedback on ratings of erotic stimuli

This study examines the roles played by sound track type, attention to sound track, and meaning of sound track in mediating the effects of false autonomic feedback on attractiveness ratings of erotic stimuli. Male subjects were instructed either to ignore or to pay attention to a pulsed or continuous sound track that was described either as heart-rate feedback or as a neutral auditory stimulus while slides of nude females were shown. Slides associated with a change in either the pulsed sound track or the continuous-tone sound track (increase slides) were subsequently rated as significantly more attractive than those associated with steady sound (stable slides). This effect was contingent on the meaning given to the auditory stimuli, with subjects in the heart-rate condition showing a stronger tendency to rate increase slides more positively than stable slides, by comparison with subjects in the neutral sounds condition. Within the heart-rate condition, subjects told to pay attention to the feedback showed greater rating differences between these two types of slide than those told to ignore it. This pattern of findings contrasts with those of an earlier experiment (Parkinson & Manstead, 1981), where differential unpleasantness ratings of slides of skin diseases depended on the attention paid to the sound track but not on its meaning. It is concluded that the effects of false autonomic feedback are contingent upon the kind of emotional stimuli that are presented.This article is based on research supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK). We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Andrew Gregory, who was responsible for the computer program used in generating the sound track, and we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of this paper.     

Emotional responsivity to nonveridical heart rate feedback as a function of anxiety

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the effects of nonveridical heart rate feedback and anxiety on electrodermal responses and verbal reports to emotionally laden stimuli. Forty-eight female subjects were divided into high and low anxious groups on the basis of their Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale scores and resting level electrodermal activity. All subjects viewed 10 autopsy slides while hearing continuous auditory tones supposedly representing their own heartbeats. Twenty-four subjects heard the tones increase in rate with slide onset. The other 24 subjects heard no change in rate with slide onset. The high resting autonomic activity group responded with significantly larger electrodermal responses to the heart rate feedback-slide combination than the low resting level autonomic activity group. The high autonomic activity group also reported that the slides were significantly more unpleasant than the low autonomic activity group, particularly those slides accompanied by an increase in heart rate feedback. Implications of these findings for a cognitive-visceral model of emotion are discussed.     

Information search and attribution: Cognitive processes mediating the effect of false autonomic feedback

All published experiments using false autonomic feedback are reviewed and four sets of necessary conditions mediating its effects are proposed. These conditions convern (a) search for an explanation of the feedback, (b) availability of potentially explanatory context features, (c) causal attribution of the feedback, and (d) salience of the perceived causes. Conflicting results, including outcomes of cognitive desensitization, are explicable by reference to these conditions. Evidence supports the attributional theory of emotional behaviour and the assumed equivalence of actual and fictitious arousal although the boundary conditions of the latter postulate need still be explored.     

Object Perception,Attention, and Memory 2008 Conference Report 16th Annual Meeting,Chicago, IL,USA

We investigated how processing unfolds across time as adults view novel manual activity. Adults advanced through slideshows of an actor performing sleight-of-hand manoeuvres; dwell times were recorded to each slide. As in past work involving larger-scale intentional action scenarios, adults allocated more attention to slides depicting breakpoints—transitions from one event segment to the next—than slides displaying mid-stream action, indicating that dwell times are sensitive to adults' recovery of segmental structure in intricate manual activity. Adults also allocated increased attention towards slides indicative of causal structure, indicating that dwell times index processing of causally relevant information as well as segmental structure. We were additionally curious if adults' learning outcomes would differ as a function of whether they paced themselves or watched slideshows advance at a computer-controlled pace. Memory did not differ, but adults viewing computer-controlled slideshows displayed an advantage in performing the tricks. A single attentional focus may have helped adults learn to re-enact the actions, relative to a split attentional focus.     

False physiological feedback and emotion: Experimenter demand and salience effects

Four experiments examined the hypothesis that the Valins (1966) false physiological feedback effect with attractiveness ratings of slides is due to experimenter demand. Experiments 1 and 2 showed significant feedback effects with 5-sec feedback periods, previously reported by Barefoot and Straub (1971) to be too brief a time to search the slides for a cause of the apparent physiological arousal. Experiments 3 and 4 had 17 variations of instructions (emotional, nonemotional), stimuli (slides of people, scenic tourist slides), and type of feedback information (heart rate, eyeblink, or none). The typical false feedback effect was found under many conditions that did not seem to meet the presumptive attributional requirements for the effect. In Experiment 4, only subjects who said they were supposed to rate feedback slides higher showed the effect, regardless of instructions, stimuli, or type of feedback. The overall results are interpreted in terms of experimenter demand and stimulus salience effects.     

Active search,mediation, and the manipulation of cue dimensions: Emotion attribution in the false feedback paradigm

The present experiments investigated the mechanism(s) that produce the false feedback effect. Although the present studies replicated the basic phenomenon, previously proposed mediators of attention and arousal did not appear related to the effects obtained. In Experiment 1, change feedback slides were rated significantly higher than no-change feedback slides (F(1, 39)=11.88,p<.01). Correlations showed that both arousal and nonarousal feedback cues produced active search and influenced stimulus ratings. Attention or arousal differences between change and no-change feedback should not result in equal cue effects. In Experiment 2, feedback rating differences were eliminated by presenting less differentially ambiguous situational stimuli. These findings suggested that important factors in the emotion attribution process may be the relative ambiguity and subjective salience of both situational and physiological cues.     

Motivation effects of attributions, expectancy, and achievement motivation during the learning of a novel motor task

Several cognitive motivational theories including achievement motivation, attribution theory, and a test of expectancy for future success were linked to explain and predict psychomotor performance. Sixty high- and 60 low-need-achieving male high school students were randomly placed into success and failure feedback conditions, and performance scores on a lever-positioning apparatus were assessed. Following each block of performance trials, fictitious feedback in the form of success and failure information was given, and then each subject rated attribution and expectancy questionnaires. Expectancies for future performance improved more following success than after failure and were generally predicted by attributions to stable elements. Although trends were present, performance scores were unaffected by these cognitive beliefs. However, a significant prediction of performance was obtained when stepwise multiple regression procedures were used with constant error as the criterion variable. The factors of expectancy and luck significantly predicted performance.     

False autonomic feedback: Effects of attention to feedback on ratings of pleasant and unpleasant target stimuli

This study investigates the potential interactions among some of the key variables in Valins's (1966) false autonomic feedback paradigm. Subjects were shown mildly pleasant or mildly unpleasant slides of animals while they either paid attention to or ignored a continuous-tone soundtrack that increased in pitch in conjunction with half of the pictures. This soundtrack was described either as feedback of skin conductance level or as a neutral auditory stimulus. Slides associated with increased pitch were generally rated as more affectively potent (in either the positive or negative direction, depending on their initial affective valence). For pleasant slides, this effect was contingent on attention to the soundtrack, such that subjectsignoring the sounds showed a stronger differential rating effect regardless of the meaning ascribed to the sound. For both pleasant and unpleasant slide conditions, the only subject groups showing significant rating effects were those ignoring neutrally described sound. It is argued that this pattern of results poses severe problems for a conventional attributional analysis of the Valins effect.This article is based on research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) under its Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Scheme. Its contents are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic and Social Research Council.We are grateful to Andrew Gregory for producing the computer program used in generating the soundtrack, and to Tony Manstead for his useful advice about an earlier version of this article.     

Eye fixations and memory for emotional events.

Subjects watched either an emotional, neutral, or unusual sequence of slides containing 1 critical slide in the middle. Experiments 1 and 2 allowed only a single eye fixation on the critical slide by presenting it for 180 ms (Experiment 1) or 150 ms (Experiment 2). Despite this constraint, memory for a central detail was better for the emotional condition. In Experiment 3, subjects were allowed 2.70 s to view the critical slide while their eye movements were monitored. When subjects who had devoted the same number of fixations were compared, memory for the central detail of the emotional slide was again better. The results suggest that enhanced memory for detail information of an emotional event does not occur solely because more attention is devoted to the emotional information.     

Subjective uncertainty,the orientation reaction,and the reinforcement of an instrumental response

In Experiment 1, Ss were exposed to slides of intermediate blur for 5, 10, 30, or 60 sec and were asked to guess the identity of the blurred object and to estimate how confident they were of each guess. The S’s task in Experiment 2 was merely to view the blurred slides while S’s EEG waves were being recorded. After being exposed to a blurred slide for a certain duration, in Experiment 3, Ss were required, by means of a key press, to choose to view either a clear version of the blurred slide or an unrelated clear picture. Uncertainty/second, EEG desynchronization/’second, and related choices were all found to be a negatively sloped function of viewing duration.     

Duchenne smile,emotional experience,and autonomic reactivity: a test of the facial feedback hypothesis

This study examined the modulatory function of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles on subjective and autonomic components of emotion. Participants were asked to hold a pencil in their mouth to either facilitate or inhibit smiles and were not instructed to contract specific muscles. Five conditions--namely lips pressing, low-level non-Duchenne smiling, high-level non-Duchenne smiling, Duchenne smiling, and control--were produced while participants watched videoclips that were evocative of positive or negative affect. Participants who displayed Duchenne smiles reported more positive experience when pleasant scenes and humorous cartoons were presented. Furthermore, they tended to exhibit different patterns of autonomic arousal when viewing positive scenes. These results support thefacial feedback hypothesis and suggest that facial feedback has more powerful effects when facial configurations represent valid analogs of basic emotional expressions.     

Baboon (Papio hamadryas) visual preferences for regions of the face

Preferences for regions of the face were examined in four members of a hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) group. Subjects were presented a series of photographic slides displaying various facial regions and combinations of regions of the dominant male in the group with the use of the method of paired comparison. An apparatus consisting of a two-slide screen/two-push-button arrangement permitted the baboons to control slide selection and viewing duration. Both duration and frequency of slide activation were recorded. Correlations of viewing durations among all subjects were significant (p less than or equal to .05). The eye region alone and in combination with other regions received significantly more attention than did all other regions or combinations. Frequency measures were not significant. The results support findings obtained with rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and suggest that the eye region may provide a primate with an important source of information, possibly information about intent.     

Information need,affect, and cognition of autonomic activity

Several studies have shown that bogus feedback of physiological change induces a greater liking for attractive stimuli. Other research suggests that the affective change induced by bogus feedback requires an opportunity to visually search change-associated stimuli for information which can account for its purported physiological effect. While there is considerable agreement among theorists that a greater disliking should obtain when the stimuli are unattractive (but a lack of data supporting this contention), there is disagreement about whether information searching is directed equally toward change-associated stimuli and no-change stimuli, or toward change-associated stimuli alone.Results of the present study support the contention that stimulus features determine the kind of affect experienced: change-associated slides depicting nudes are rated as more attractive than no-change-associated nudes, and change-associated slides depicting accident vitctims are rated as more repulsive than no-change-associated victims. Information seeking data are more consistent with the contention that information needs exist after both types of feedback.     

Impact of esteem-related feedback on mood, self-efficacy, and attribution of success: Self-enhancement/self-protection

It is suggested that positive ego-enhancing and negative ego-diminishing feedback conditions concerning social perceptiveness can give rise to altered affective states concerning self-esteem that generalize to other areas of cognitive functioning in such a way that this feedback accompanies a systematic self-serving attributional bias of cognitive/intellectual performance. The results of 40 participants in an ego-enhancing and 45 in an ego-diminishing feedback condition indicate more attribution of problem-solving success by the first group to effort and to ease of the task; participants who received ego-diminishing feedback attributed their initial problem-solving success less to ease of the task. Other more direct evidence of self-protective strategies on the part of those in the ego-diminishing feedback condition includes lower success expecta y on retest and reduced volunteering for additional challenge. The results are interpreted as evidence of the impact of generalized esteem-related affect on future success expectancy, on risk-taking, and on the attribution of success when future replication is a boundary condition.     

Aggressive slides can induce a weapons effect

This experiment aims at testing the relationship between the aggressive meaning of slides and the viewers' behavior. Three sets of slides varying in their perceived aggressive content (revolver, whistle and a box of chocolate milk) were shown to three groups of Ss who had to choose the intensity of electric shocks they wanted to administer to a partner. As expected, viewing a highly aggressive slide increased the aggressive behavior of the Ss who had been insulted. These results broaden the generalizability of the Berkowitz and LePage (1967) original finding, and they cannot be explained by Page and Scheidt's (1971) criticisms.     

The Effects of Hindsight Bias and Causal Attribution on Human Response to Environmental Events1

This research examined the influence of hindsight bias and causal attribution on perceptions of a technological disaster. After reading a fictitious account of a toxic substance spill near a populated area, subjects were provided with information that disease rates had either increased or had remained stable (hindsight conditions), or were presented with no outcome information (control condition). Subjects were then asked to predict the likelihood of increases in disease rates and to make causal attributions regarding the target company and residents of the disaster community. When compared to subjects provided with either no outcome information or with information that disease rates remained stable (positive-outcome condition), subjects told that disease rates had increased (negative-outcome condition) showed elevated predictions regarding future disease rates, ascribed greater responsibility for the accident to the target company, and reported more anger toward the company and greater sympathy for the residents. Subjects receiving positive outcome information and no outcome information did not significantly differ on these measures. In addition, results from a path analysis supported the efficacy of attribution theory to account for the cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences resulting from hindsight bias following a negative environmental event.     

Information seeking of high- and low-anxiety subjects after receiving positive and negative self-relevant feedback

The present paper reports an experiment in which subjects received fictitious intelligence test feedback that was either negatively or positively discrepant with their self-evaluation. They were then given an opportunity to choose among several articles containing information that either derogated intelligence tests (test-disparaging information) or argued for their validity (test-supporting information). The main finding of this study consists of an interaction between the personality factor anxiety and the feedback variable: High-anxiety subjects prefer test-disparaging information significantly more in the negative feedback condition than in the positive feedback condition, whereas low-anxiety subjects show no difference in preference for test-related information as a function of the feedback condition. These results are in line with past theoretical reasoning and experimental findings showing that high-anxiety subjects feel more threatened by negative self-relevant feedback than do low-anxiety subjects.