Walk this way: approaching bodies can influence the processing of faces

A highly familiar type of movement occurs whenever a person walks towards you. In the present study, we investigated whether this type of motion has an effect on face processing. We took a range of different 3D head models and placed them on a single, identical 3D body model. The resulting figures were animated to approach the observer. In a first series of experiments, we used a sequential matching task to investigate how the motion of an approaching person affects immediate responses to faces. We compared observers’ responses following approach sequences to their performance with figures walking backwards (receding motion) or remaining still. Observers were significantly faster in responding to a target face that followed an approach sequence, compared to both receding and static primes. In a second series of experiments, we investigated long-term effects of motion using a delayed visual search paradigm. After studying moving or static avatars, observers searched for target faces in static arrays of varying set sizes. Again, observers were faster at responding to faces that had been learned in the context of an approach sequence. Together these results suggest that the context of a moving body influences face processing, and support the hypothesis that our visual system has mechanisms that aid the encoding of behaviourally-relevant and familiar dynamic events.     

颜色知觉突显对预览效益的影响

本研究通过预览搜索范式考察靶子在颜色高突显情况下的预览效益,探讨其优先选择机制。结果发现在靶子颜色高突显的情况下,预览效益没有出现,说明预览效益的出现有其一定的条件和限制,并为基于刺激特征的抑制的解释提供了支持证据。本文还探讨了预览效益消退的可能原因。     

不同位置的情绪面孔加工对返回抑制的影响

分别将情绪面孔图片作为线索（实验一）或靶子（实验二）呈现,利用线索-靶子范式考察了定位任务中情绪面孔加工对返回抑制的影响。结果发现：以不同情绪面孔作为线索时,返回抑制稳定出现,表现出与情绪加工的分离;而当情绪面孔作为靶子时,与中性面孔相比,情绪面孔引发的返回抑制量显著较小。该研究表明,在定位任务中,返回抑制不受线索生物性的影响,但是会受到靶子性质的影响,反映出机体在不同条件下对空间注意和情绪加工的灵活性。     

奖赏预期调节局部注意干扰效应

局部注意干扰效应(Localized attentional interference, LAI)是指在视觉搜索任务中同时搜索在空间上分离的两个目标时, 或者目标周围存在一个无关奇异项时, 这两个关键刺激相距较近时产生的干扰现象。本实验采用视觉搜索范式, 探讨了奖赏预期对局部注意干扰效应的影响。实验1采用双目标搜索任务, 要求被试判断搜索画面中两个奇异项刺激的形状是否相同。结果显示奖赏条件和无奖赏条件都表现出显著的距离主效应, 随着目标间距离增大, 被试的正确率提高, 反应时下降。同时, 在远距离时, 奖赏条件下的正确率高于无奖赏条件, 而在近距离时, 奖赏条件下的正确率反而低于无奖赏条件, 即, 奖赏条件下局部注意干扰效应反而增大。高动机状态增强了两个目标的表征, 反而不利于解决局部注意干扰效应。实验2采用单目标搜索任务, 要求被试判断特定目标的方位并忽略另一无关奇异项刺激。与实验1不同的是, 实验2仅在无奖赏条件下观察到显著的距离主效应, 即被试行为表现在远距离时更好; 而在奖赏条件下, 被试在近距离和远距离的表现一样好, 即没有局部注意干扰效应。这说明在奖赏预期条件, 个体可以有效抑制分心物刺激的干扰, 将注意集中于目标刺激的加工, 从而对局部注意干扰效应产生调节。整个研究表明, 奖赏整体上能够提高对任务相关刺激的表征, 并抑制任务无关刺激, 虽然这并不总是能够提高任务表现。     

大学新生的人生意义与抑郁:交互效应与中介效应

基于Frankl(1963)的意义疗法理论观点和Steger等(2006)提出的人生意义双维构念, 考察人生意义对大学新生抑郁的影响机制, 分析其中可能存在的交互效应和中介效应。采用问卷法调查了某东部省会城市1所理工科大学、1所综合性大学的435名新生, 结果表明:(1)大学新生的意义体验与无聊倾向、抑郁负相关, 与希望正相关;意义寻求与意义体验、抑郁的相关均不显著;(2)意义体验和意义寻求对抑郁具有交互效应, 对意义寻求较低的个体, 意义体验的保护作用更强;(3)意义体验通过无聊倾向和希望的并行多重中介效应影响抑郁, 且无聊倾向的中介效应显著强于希望。     

Is anyone looking at me? Direct gaze detection in children with and without autism

Atypical processing of eye contact is one of the significant characteristics of individuals with autism, but the mechanism underlying atypical direct gaze processing is still unclear. This study used a visual search paradigm to examine whether the facial context would affect direct gaze detection in children with autism. Participants were asked to detect target gazes presented among distracters with different gaze directions. The target gazes were either direct gaze or averted gaze, which were either presented alone (Experiment 1) or within facial context (Experiment 2). As with the typically developing children, the children with autism, were faster and more efficient to detect direct gaze than averted gaze, whether or not the eyes were presented alone or within faces. In addition, face inversion distorted efficient direct gaze detection in typically developing children, but not in children with autism. These results suggest that children with autism use featural information to detect direct gaze, whereas typically developing children use configural information to detect direct gaze.     

Coordinating cognition: the costs and benefits of shared gaze during collaborative search

Collaboration has its benefits, but coordination has its costs. We explored the potential for remotely located pairs of people to collaborate during visual search, using shared gaze and speech. Pairs of searchers wearing eyetrackers jointly performed an O-in-Qs search task alone, or in one of three collaboration conditions: shared gaze (with one searcher seeing a gaze-cursor indicating where the other was looking, and vice versa), shared-voice (by speaking to each other), and shared-gaze-plus-voice (by using both gaze-cursors and speech). Although collaborating pairs performed better than solitary searchers, search in the shared gaze condition was best of all: twice as fast and efficient as solitary search. People can successfully communicate and coordinate their searching labor using shared gaze alone. Strikingly, shared gaze search was even faster than shared-gaze-plus-voice search; speaking incurred substantial coordination costs. We conclude that shared gaze affords a highly efficient method of coordinating parallel activity in a time-critical spatial task.     

Role of endpoints and closures in feature search1

Abstract: The present study intended to examine the role of endpoints and of closures, the two most frequently referred to features, in a feature‐search paradigm. Two experiments were conducted with a rigorous stimulus control using random lined figures of different levels of complexity. The experiments gave almost identical results: there was no search asymmetry between the two features, smaller latencies were obtained in the presence of a feature as a target rather than in its absence, and the latencies were smaller for the displays having a background consisting of closures rather than for those having a background of endpoints. The results were more comprehensively explained by the high contrast between an endpoint as a target and closures as a background, rather than the conspicuity of an endpoint as a target. The possibility for closures to group into a homogeneous ground was discussed.     

Frames of reference for the light-from-above prior in visual search and shape judgements

Faced with highly complex and ambiguous visual input, human observers must rely on prior knowledge and assumptions to efficiently determine the structure of their surroundings. One of these assumptions is the 'light-from-above' prior. In the absence of explicit light-source information, the visual system assumes that the light-source is roughly overhead. A simple, low-cost strategy would place this 'light-from-above' prior in a retinal frame of reference. A more complex, but optimal strategy would be to assume that the light-source is gravitationally up, and compensate for observer orientation. Evidence to support one or other strategy from psychophysics and neurophysiology has been mixed. This paper pits the gravitational and retinal frames against each other in two different visual tasks that relate to the light-from-above prior. In the first task, observers had to report the presence or absence of a target where distractors and target were defined purely by shading. In the second task, observers made explicit shape judgements of similar stimuli. The orientation of the stimuli varied across trials and the observer's head was fixed at 0, +/-45 or +/-60 degrees . In both tasks the retinal frame of reference dominated. Visual search behaviour with shape-from-shading stimuli (SFS) was modulated purely by stimulus orientation relative to the retina. However, the gravitational frame of reference had a significant effect on shape judgements, with a 30% correction for observer orientation. In other words, shading information is processed quite differently depending on the demands of the current task. When a 'quick and dirty' representation is required to drive fast, efficient search, that is what the visual system provides. In contrast, when the task is to explicitly estimate shape, extra processing to compensate for head orientation precedes the perceptual judgment. These results are consistent with current neurophysiological data on SFS if we re-frame compensation for observer orientation as a cue-combination problem.     

电子地图汉字大小辨认阈限和合理字间距

本研究由三个实验组成,探讨电子地图中汉字呈现的辨认闽限和合理字间距（信息载负量）问题。实验一采用恒定刺激法测定电子地图中汉字的辨认闽限,结果显示,汉字复杂度和背景的复杂度都影响地图汉字识别,且不存在交互作用;宋体汉字的平均辨认阈限为7．0771’。实验二运用调整法测得在电子地图中宋体汉字的舒适阈限（能识别每个笔画的汉字辨认阈限）为16．6951’。实验三以视觉搜索方法研究字间距（体现在电子地图中单位面积字数）与搜索效率的关系,结果显示,每个汉字平均耗费的搜索时间随着字数增加而减少,说明字数越多,搜索效率越高。