Is positivity a cue or a response option? Warm glow vs evaluative matching in the familiarity for attractive and not-so-attractive faces

Monin (2003) showed that the attractiveness of a face increases its perceived familiarity regardless of prior exposure, and suggested that this beautiful-is-familiar effect was due to the misattribution to familiarity of the positive affect (or “warm glow”) elicited by attractive faces. This research tests the alternative interpretation that an evaluative match between a positive stimulus (an attractive face) and a positive response (“familiar”) accounts for this effect in the absence of any misattribution. In a face recognition task, participants were led to signal their sense of familiarity with previously seen and unseen faces by selecting either a pleasant (affectively congruent) or unpleasant (affectively incongruent) image. Consistent with the warm glow heuristic, higher false alarm rates were obtained for more attractive distracters, and this effect survived (and was, if anything, stronger) when an affectively incongruent response format was used. These findings are discussed in the context of current face memory and perceptual fluency models.     

面孔识别特异性本质的ERP研究

本研究记录了16名被试在完成有整体结构变化和局部特征变化的面孔/房屋图片的一致性判断时的脑内时程变化,以期对面孔识别的特异性本质进行探讨。结果显示,N170波幅和潜伏期的刺激类型主效应显著;面孔/房屋所诱发的N170成分在波幅和潜伏期上均不存在加工方式上的显著差异。晚期成分(300～700ms)上也得到类似的结果。这表明:面孔与房屋(非面孔)的加工在早期和晚期成分上都有差异性,体现出面孔的加工在早期视觉刺激的加工和晚期识别的加工上都具有特异性;晚期识别加工的脑电结果不支持"面孔识别是整体的,结构的,而非面孔客体的识别是局部的,基于特征的"加工观点。     

Gain face,but lose happiness? It depends on how much money you have

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of face consciousness on happiness and the moderating role of financial situation on this relationship. We first examined our hypotheses in study 1 in a particular setting of consumption, and replicated our findings in study 2 in a more generalized setting of interpersonal situations. The two studies produced essentially consistent results. We found individuals high on face consciousness tend to be less happy, and the negative association between face consciousness and happiness is ameliorated by their financial situation. These results revealed the importance of face consciousness as an individual difference in predicting happiness. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.     

Four themes from 20 years of research on infant perception and cognition

This paper reviews progress over the past 20 years in four areas of research on infant perception and cognition. Work on perception of dynamic events has identified perceptual constraints on perception of object unity and object trajectory continuity that have led to a perceptual account of early development that supplements Nativist accounts. Work on face processing has charted developmental changes that clarify the way innate systems are modified by experience. Research on perception of goal‐directed action and animacy has made significant progress in uncovering the roots of social cognition from 6 months onwards. New methods such as eye tracking and measures of brain activity have done much to confirm and clarify conclusions arising from more conventional looking preference methods. It is likely that future progress in theory and understanding will be made increasingly as a result of triangulation between data arising from conventional and newer methods. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of subjective difficulty on the degree of configural and featural processing in face recognition1

This study aimed to assess the effect of subjective difficulty on the degree of featural or configural processing in face recognition. It could be assumed that featural processing is analytic processing ( Peterson & Rhodes, 2003 ), while configural processing is automatic processing ( Dunning & Stern, 1994 ). It has been suggested that task difficulty affected the automaticity of processing. Task difficulty was manipulated using a number of alternatives or time pressure. Subjective difficulty could also affect the automaticity of processing. If so, then subjective difficulty may in turn affect the degree of featural or configural processing. Participants in a difficult condition were given instructions mentioning that the face‐recognition task was difficult, while participants in the control condition were given no such instruction. The amount of retrieved featural information in the former condition was less than that in the latter. These results suggested that the degree of featural processing decreased when the participants found the task difficult.     

卡通面孔分类与识别加工的ERP比较研究

通过ERP方法,考察卡通面孔分类（人和动物）的脑机制及其与卡通面孔识别（人与车）的差异。结果表明,分类任务中,动物面孔VPP潜伏期显著长于人,N170潜伏期主效应不显著、波幅半球效应显著,LPP波幅在顶叶和中央区最大;分类任务VPP和LPP波幅均显著大于识别。结论：卡通面孔分类比识别速度慢、强度大,消耗心理资源多。顶叶和中央区可能是执行分类任务的主要脑区,且加工人类面孔具有优势。面孔加工中结构编码和特征编码可能部分是并行的。     

面孔参照或观察者参照：性别二态线索、面孔吸引力与表情对正视面孔偏好的影响

本研究探讨了性别二态线索、面孔吸引力和表情对正视面孔偏好的影响。实验1基于面孔参照,被试普遍偏好正视面孔;相对男性化/厌恶和生气/低吸引力的面孔,被试更偏好女性化/高兴和中性/高吸引力的正视面孔;实验2基于观察者参照,总体并未表现出正视偏好;对低吸引力/中性表情/男性化面孔更偏好斜视面孔。     

基于面孔知觉的刻板印象激活两阶段模型

从个体建构研究视角出发, 考察了基于面孔知觉的刻板印象激活过程。实验一比较了性别分类判断、启动范式以及同时呈现范式下刻板印象匹配性判断三者所用反应时的差异, 结果发现, 后者显著地大于前二者, 且等于前二者之和; 面孔倒置呈现使同时呈现范式下刻板印象匹配判断的反应时和错误率显著增大, 但其对启动范式中刻板印象匹配判断的反应时和错误率没有影响。实验二基于同时呈现范式, 通过不同程度的面孔变形来操纵性别类别提取的难度, 更精确地探讨了基于面孔知觉的社会类别信息提取过程对刻板印象激活的影响, 结果表明, 随着从面孔中提取类别信息难度的增加, 刻板印象激活所用的反应时也逐渐增大。研究结果证实了研究者所提出的刻板印象激活两阶段模型, 即基于面孔知觉的社会类别提取阶段和刻板印象信息激活阶段, 证实社会类别激活和刻板印象信息激活是两个分离的过程, 以社会类别信息提取为目的的面孔知觉对刻板印象的激活有显著影响。     

大学生面孔信任评价的自动化加工

本研究以40名大学生为研究对象,通过内隐加工和内隐记忆的方法探讨面孔信任评价是否为自动加工。结果表明,在外显记忆任务下,大学生在三种可信度面孔的再认成绩两两之间差异显著,其中不可信任面孔再认正确率最高,反应最快;在内隐记忆任务下,不可信任面孔的再认成绩最好,且反应最快。这些结果说明,个体可以依据陌生面孔的可信度对面孔进行自动加工,且对不可信任面孔最为敏感。