Facial asymmetry detection in patients with body dysmorphic disorder

Cognitive-behavioral models of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) propose that individuals with BDD may possess a better or more developed sense of aestheticality than do individuals without BDD. Evidence for this proposition, however, is limited. One perceptual process that could contribute to heightened aestheticality is the ability to detect differences in symmetry. In this experiment we tested whether individuals with BDD (n = 20), relative to individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20), show an enhanced ability to detect differences in the symmetry of others’ faces, symmetry of dot arrays, and/or show a greater preference for symmetrical faces. Individuals with BDD were not significantly more accurate in detecting differences in facial symmetry or dot arrays relative to individuals with OCD and healthy controls. Individuals with OCD took longer to make facial symmetry judgments than did individuals in the other two groups. All participants, regardless of diagnostic group, preferred more symmetrical faces than nonsymmetrical ones. Taken together, our results do not support a heightened perceptual ability or evaluative preference for symmetry among individuals with BDD.     

Development of a facial-expression database of Chinese Han,Hui and Tibetan people

Recently, cross-cultural facial-expression recognition has become a research hotspot, and a standardised facial-expression material system can significantly help researchers compare and demonstrate the results of other studies. We developed a facial-expression database of Chinese Han, Hui and Tibetan ethnicities. In this study, six basic human facial expressions (and one neutral expression) were collected from 200 Han, 220 Hui and 210 Tibetan participants who lived in these regions. Four experts on each ethnicity evaluated the facial-expression images according to the expressions, and only those achieving inter-rater agreement were retained. Subsequently, 240 raters evaluated these images according to the seven emotions and rated the intensity of the expressions. Consequently, 2980 images were included in the database, including 930 images of Han individuals, 962 images of Hui individuals and 1088 images of Tibetan individuals. In conclusion, the facial-expression database of Chinese Han, Hui and Tibetan people was representative and reliable with a recognition rate of over 60%, making it well-suited for cross-cultural research on emotions.     

Both fearful and happy expressions interact with gaze direction by 200 ms SOA to speed attention orienting

Attention orienting towards a gazed-at location is fundamental to social attention. Whether gaze cues can interact with emotional expressions other than those signalling environmental threat to modulate this gaze cueing, and whether this integration changes over time, remains unclear. With four experiments we demonstrate that, when perceived motion inherent to dynamic displays is controlled for, gaze cueing is enhanced by both fearful and happy faces compared to neutral faces. This enhancement is seen with stimulus-onset asynchronies ranging from 200–700?ms. Thus, gaze cueing can be reliably modulated by positive expressions, albeit to a smaller degree than fearful ones, and this gaze–emotion integration impacts behaviour as early as 200?ms post-cue onset.     

Rôle de l’émotion dans l’acceptabilité d’un produit : évaluation des composantes cognitive,motivationnelle et subjective

To anticipate a product commercial success, companies aim to ensure that product's characteristics are involving users and triggering a positive first user experience as well as all along product's life span. Among these characteristics, triggering users’ emotions is particularly relevant. This article aims to present the different approaches integrating the emotion generated by products. In order to illustrate the emotional potential of certain products a selection of 14 photographs of products was evaluated by 87 participants. Results reveal a significant correlation between cognitive, motivational and subjective components of emotions. A reflexion about the integration of cognitive appraisal assessment and motivational action readiness evaluation into a wilder emotional model is provided. Thus, emotions triggered by a product appear to be a stake for designers and an important variable to introduce in acceptability or user experience models.     

Development of body emotion perception in infancy: From discrimination to recognition

Research suggests that infants progress from discrimination to recognition of emotions in faces during the first half year of life. It is unknown whether the perception of emotions from bodies develops in a similar manner. In the current study, when presented with happy and angry body videos and voices, 5-month-olds looked longer at the matching video when they were presented upright but not when they were inverted. In contrast, 3.5-month-olds failed to match even with upright videos. Thus, 5-month-olds but not 3.5-month-olds exhibited evidence of recognition of emotions from bodies by demonstrating intermodal matching. In a subsequent experiment, younger infants did discriminate between body emotion videos but failed to exhibit an inversion effect, suggesting that discrimination may be based on low-level stimulus features. These results document a developmental change from discrimination based on non-emotional information at 3.5 months to recognition of body emotions at 5 months. This pattern of development is similar to face emotion knowledge development and suggests that both the face and body emotion perception systems develop rapidly during the first half year of life.     

Contributions of Observed Parent Socialization of Coping and Skin Conductance Level Reactivity to Childhood Adjustment

This research examined the longitudinal association between parent socialization of coping and child adjustment, as well as the moderating role of children's skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR). Participants were a community sample of children (n = 64, M age = 9.02, 54.5% females, 93.2% Caucasian) and their parent(s). Parent coping suggestions were observed while their child engaged in a stressful challenge task, during which the child's SCLR, a measure of children's physiological reactivity to stress, was also measured. Parent(s) completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) at baseline and a 6‐month follow‐up to assess internalizing and externalizing problems. Results revealed that secondary control engagement suggestions predicted fewer internalizing problems over time. In addition, disengagement suggestions predicted fewer externalizing problems over time among children with high SCLR. This study provides evidence that parent coping suggestions serve as a resource that protects youth from developing adjustment problems.     

Facial expressions as performances in mime

That facial expressions are universal emotion signals has been supported by observers agreeing on the emotion mimed by actors. We show that actors can mime a diverse range of states: emotions, cognitions, physical states, and actions. English, Hindi, and Malayalam speakers (N?=?1200) viewed 25 video clips and indicated the state conveyed. Within each language, at least 23 of the 25 clips were recognised above chance and base rate. Facial expressions of emotions are not special in their recognisability, and it is miming that may be the universal human ability.     

On the malleability of the meaning of contexts: the influence of another person’s emotion expressions on situation perception

Research on the relationship between context and facial expressions generally assumes a unidirectional effect of context on expressions. However, according to the model of the meaning of emotion expressions in context (MEEC) the effect should be bidirectional. The present research tested the effect of emotion expression on the interpretation of scenes. A total of 380 participants either (a) rated facial expressions with regard to the likely appraisal of the eliciting situation by the emoter, (b) appraised the scenes alone or (c) appraised scenes shown together with the expressions they supposedly elicited. The findings strongly supported the MEEC. When a scene was combined with an expression signalling a situation that is undesirable, or high in locus of control or sudden, the participants appraised the scene correspondingly. Thus, the meaning of scenes is malleable and affected by the way that people are seen to react to them.     

Individual Differences in Children's Understanding of Guilt: Links with Theory of Mind

The author examined the relation between individual differences in children's understanding of guilt and theory of mind (ToM) ability. Two hundred and eighteen 8- to 10-year-old children were asked to define what guilt is and report a personal experience in which they felt this emotion. ToM was assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Children's version; Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) and with the Strange Stories test (Happè, 1994). There were marked differences in children's understanding of guilt even after controlling for age. Moreover, high levels of understanding of guilt were associated with high levels of performance on both ToM tests. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

If you are vulnerable and you know it raise your hand: Experiences from working in post-tsunami Thailand

Scientific validity has historically been measured against notions of objectivity. However, try as we might, we cannot divorce ourselves from our own personal interests and perceptions that shape the questions we ask, the theoretical filters and methods we choose, and the conclusions we make. We are all human and it is this humanness that is tested and shaped by disasters. Embracing this humanness, this paper reflects upon the experiences and challenges of undertaking longitudinal research in Thailand following the 2004 Tsunami from the perspective of a research student. These include: common logistical and planning challenges in undertaking disaster research in a cross-cultural setting and how positionality, reflexivity, reciprocity and the differing needs of the researcher and participants influence research outcomes. Particular focus is placed on the emotional toll working in unique trauma landscapes has on researchers and the associated threat of secondary trauma stress and vicarious trauma, how this influences a researcher's relationship to place and the ramifications this exchange has on the researcher as a person and their findings. I conclude by offering recommendations on how early career researchers can better prepare for and navigate the disaster landscape and adjustments their mentors and institutions can make to support them.