Detection of emotional expressions in rapidly changing facial displays in high- and low-socially anxious women

Facial information and attention to facial displays are distributed over spatial as well as temporal domains. Thus far, research on selective attention to (dis)approving faces in the context of social anxiety has concentrated primarily on the spatial domain. Using a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm, the present study examined the temporal characteristics of visual attention for happy and angry faces in high- (n=16) and low-socially anxious individuals (n=17), to test whether also in the temporal domain socially anxious individuals are characterized by threat-confirming attentional biases. Results indicated that presenting angry faces as the first target (T1) did not aggravate the detection of the emotional expression of the second target (T2). Yet, participants generally showed superior detection of the emotional expression of T2, if T2 was an angry face. Casting doubt on the role of such attenuated attentional blink for angry faces in social anxiety, no evidence emerged to indicate that this effect was relatively strong in high-socially anxious individuals. Finally, the presentation of an angry face as T2 resulted in a relatively hampered identification of a happy-T1. Again, this "backward blink" was not especially pronounced in high-socially anxious individuals. The present anger superiority effects are consistent with evolutionary models stressing the importance of being especially vigilant for signals of dominance. Since the effects were not especially pronounced in high-anxious individuals, the present study adds to previous findings indicating that socially anxious individuals are not characterized by a bias in the (explicit) detection of emotional expressions [Philippot, P., & Douilliez, C. (2005). Social phobics do not misinterpret facial expression of emotion. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 639-652].     

双任务间隔对特征搜索方式的影响

采用RSVP序列,以两个实验探讨了双任务间隔对特征搜索方式的影响。要求试被首先辨认数字序列中包含的字母(任务一,T1),随后完成特征搜索任务(任务二,T2)。在实验一中,T2是检测在同时呈现的多个椭圆中是否有方向不一致的目标出现;在实验二中,T2是检测同时呈现的多个灰色圆点中是否有红色圆点出现。结果发现:随T1-T2间距缩短,T2的正确率显著下降;T2所含刺激数目的增加并未引起其正确率下降,即任务转换只影响特征搜索的绩效而未改变搜索方式,特征搜索仍以并行方式进行。根据动态控制理论,由于在本研究范式中两个任务之间存在任务转换过程,特征搜索应当为系列搜索。可见上述结果与动态控制理论不符。     

Memory reloaded: Memory load effects in the attentional blink

When two targets are presented in rapid succession, identification of the first is nearly perfect, while identification of the second is impaired when it follows the first by less than about 700 ms. According to bottleneck models, this attentional blink (AB) occurs because the second target is unable to gain access to capacity-limited working memory processes already occupied by the first target. Evidence for this hypothesis, however, has been mixed, with recent reports suggesting that increasing working memory load does not affect the AB. The present paper explores possible reasons for failures to find a link between memory load and the AB and shows that a reliable effect of load can be obtained when the item directly after T1 (Target 1) is omitted. This finding provides initial evidence that working memory load can influence the AB and additional evidence for a link between T1 processing time and the AB predicted by bottleneck models.     

Inhibition from blinked category labels: Combining the attentional blink and the semantic priming paradigm

In the present experiment we combined the attentional blink and the semantic priming paradigm. We used category labels as primes and category exemplars as targets. The prime stimuli were embedded into a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) stream and presented at varying positions after a to-be-identified stimulus, albeit the stimulus–onset asynchrony between primes and targets remained constant throughout the experiment. As a result, participants’ prime awareness was reduced in some trials although the prime duration was always at levels usually considered to elicit awareness (60 ms). After each RSVP there was a forced choice discrimination test to assess participants’ prime awareness. When subjects could not identify the prime stimuli we observed slower responses to related as compared to unrelated targets. This result confirms results found with repeated masked primes. However, whereas former studies assessed unawareness rather coarsely at the level of individual participants, here unawareness was tested on a trial-by-trial basis.     

死亡凸显对自我姓名注意瞬脱对抗效应的影响

已有研究表明死亡凸显会抑制自我面孔和自我参照记忆加工的自我优势,可是死亡凸显对自我姓名的影响尚不明确,本研究采用事件相关电位技术,探索死亡凸显对自我姓名注意瞬脱对抗效应及其大脑神经活动的影响。58名被试在经历不同的启动任务后,完成自我姓名、朋友姓名和名人姓名的注意瞬脱任务。行为结果发现自我姓名识别正确率显著高于朋友姓名和名人姓名,表现出稳定的自我姓名加工的注意瞬脱对抗效应;电生理数据发现死亡启动后自我姓名诱发的P300波幅显著低于消极启动组和中性启动组,而朋友姓名和名人姓名并不受启动的影响。本研究结果与以往研究结果共同表明死亡想法凸显会使个体将抑制自我加工（自我姓名、自我面孔和自我参照记忆）作为应对远端死亡焦虑的一种手段。     

空间注意能够促进知觉表征进入工作记忆:来自注意瞬脱的证据

本研究目的一是探讨外周空间线索能否促进知觉表征进入工作记忆,二是观察线索的信息性对该促进作用时间进程的影响。实验采用注意瞬脱和空间线索结合的实验范式,考察不同信息性线索对目标识别的促进效应在注意瞬脱期间内外的变化。实验1和实验2分别采用了非信息性和信息性线索。结果显示：外周线索的促进效应在瞬脱期间内显著大于瞬脱期间外;非信息性线索和信息性线索分别在较短和较长的线索-目标间隔下起促进效应。因此,外周线索能促进知觉表征进入工作记忆,而不同信息性线索可能引发不同的注意机制．从而具有不同人促进效应。     

Viewpoint costs occur during consolidation: evidence from the attentional blink

Do the viewpoint costs incurred when naming rotated familiar objects arise during initial identification or during consolidation? To answer this question we employed an attentional blink (AB) task where two target objects appeared amongst a rapid stream of distractor objects. Our assumption was that while both targets and distractors undergo initial identification only targets are consolidated in a form that allows overt report. We presented line drawings of objects with a usual upright canonical orientation, and separately manipulated the orientation of targets and distractors. In two experiments, targets were defined by colour, whereas in a third experiment they were defined by semantic category. Target 1 orientation influenced the AB, with objects rotated by 90 degrees causing a larger second target deficit than upright and upside-down objects. However, distractor orientation did not affect the magnitude of the second target deficit, regardless of whether targets were defined by colour or semantic category. Taken together, these findings suggest that the visual representations involved in the preliminary recognition of familiar objects are viewpoint-invariant and that viewpoint costs are incurred when these objects are consolidated for report.     

The pigeon's discrimination of shape and location information

Two groups of pigeons (n = 4) were trained with 16 line drawings portraying a fixed shape and a variable shape. The four variable shapes (a wedge, a cone, a cylinder, and a handle) appeared to the left of, to the right of, above, or below the fixed shape (a cube). Group Shape (S) was required to discriminate the identity of the variable shape that was mated with the cube, whereas Group Location (L) was required to discriminate where the variable shape appeared relative to the cube. Three of the four pigeons in each group mastered their respective tasks. Later tests revealed that the two groups of pigeons had attended to different aspects of the shape pairs, even though the visual stimuli and general procedures they had been given were the same. Group S had attended to the identity of the variable shape and had ignored the identity and location of the cube, whereas Group L had attended to the configuration of the two shapes. The methods and stimuli could be useful in delineating the biological bases of shape and location perception.     

Aging Extends the Time Required to Switch Cognitive Set

ABSTRACT

The Attentional Blink (AB) refers to a decrease in the chance of detecting a second target in a rapid sequence of items if it occurs within approximately 500 ms of a first target. In this study the efficiency of establishing and switching cognitive set for older adults (mean age 71.62 years) relative to young adults (mean age 21.33 years) was investigated. Three increasingly complex conditions of the AB paradigm were employed, each of which required participants to identify a coloured square (T1) and a letter (T2) within a stream of distracters. Accuracy of identification of T2 decreased for both young and older adults as complexity increased. In Condition 1, selection criteria for both targets were fully specified, while T1 acted as a direct cue to the selection criteria for T2 in Condition 2. Older participants took longer to establish cognitive set in this condition. Condition 3 contained an added requirement to activate a pre-determined rule for T2 selection. The basic requirement to establish cognitive set ‘online’, however, seemed to disguise any additional potential problems associated with the additional load required for Condition 3 for older adults. Younger adults were cognitively slowed in Condition 3 relative to Condition 2, suggesting that it is the need to use an internally generated cue to switch cognitive set that requires extra time for them. The significantly larger AB demonstrated by the older participants indicated an impaired ability to rapidly establish cognitive set. The findings are discussed in light of the current literature on cognitive aging, the AB and task switching.     

Differentiating sexual preference in men: Using dual task rapid serial visual presentation task

Cognition research suggests that allocating attention resources to evolutionarily relevant stimuli is facilitated suggesting that sexual stimuli interfere with human information processing. In a group of gay (n = 13) and straight men (n = 13) recruited in Finland, Germany and Italy, we investigated if and how sexually relevant visual stimuli affect information processing of both a target one (T1) and a subsequent target two (T2) in a dual target rapid serial visual presentation procedure. We hypothesized that: (1) due to the attentional blink (AB) phenomenon, the accuracy of reporting of T2 would decrease when following accurately identified sexually preferred T1 compared to accurately identified non‐sexually preferred T1; 2) due to the pop out effect, the accuracy of reporting of T1 and T2 would be relatively increased when T1 and T2 were sexually preferred by the participants compared to when they were not. Our findings did not support hypothesis 1 but supported hypothesis 2. We further found that the pop out effect had a good capacity to differentiate sexual preference between the groups of gay and straight men. We conclude that dual target rapid serial visual presentation can be used as an attention‐based measurement to differentiate sexual preference in men. Limitations and the applicability in the field of measuring sexual preference were discussed.