Detection of emotional facial expressions and anti-expressions

Detection of emotional facial expressions has been shown to be more efficient than detection of neutral expressions. However, it remains unclear whether this effect is attributable to visual or emotional factors. To investigate this issue, we conducted two experiments using the visual search paradigm with photographic stimuli. We included a single target facial expression of anger or happiness in presentations of crowds of neutral facial expressions. The anti-expressions of anger and happiness were also presented. Although anti-expressions produced changes in visual features comparable to those of the emotional facial expressions, they expressed relatively neutral emotions. The results consistently showed that reaction times (RTs) for detecting emotional facial expressions (both anger and happiness) were shorter than those for detecting anti-expressions. The RTs for detecting the expressions were negatively related to experienced emotional arousal. These results suggest that efficient detection of emotional facial expressions is not attributable to their visual characteristics but rather to their emotional significance.     

Love in therapy: A qualitative study of how clients perceive their therapists’ emotions

Relevant literature on attachment theory has explored the importance of emotional experience inside the therapeutic setting, highlighting that the active engagement of the therapist with the client is necessary in the process of change. However, less is known about the clients’ perception of the therapists’ emotional expression during a session. In this qualitative study, we used narrative thematic analysis to examine 10 semi-structured interviews with clients in an enriched systemic therapy approach. Focusing on the similarities of clients’ experiences, what emerged from the interviews were specific ‘perceived emotions’ and the related facial expressions of the therapists that were given attention by the clients. Based on our findings, six emotional themes were identified and are considered prominent: (i) ‘excitement’, (ii) ‘calmness’, (iii) ‘affection’, (iv) ‘empathy’, (v) ‘anger’ and (vi) ‘sadness’. Also, the analysis revealed two distinct functions of the expression of the therapist’s emotions: (i) they are an essential part of the therapeutic relationship and, (ii) they provide clients with alternative ways of experiencing emotions and motivate them to change. Therapists are invited to recognize the importance of their own emotional and facial expression in therapy considering it a form of self-disclosure. Suggestions for further research are also provided.     

Preschool children's proto-episodic memory assessed by deferred imitation

In two experiments, both employing deferred imitation, we studied the developmental origins of episodic memory in two- to three-year-old children by adopting a “minimalist” view of episodic memory based on its What–When–Where (“WWW”: spatiotemporal plus semantic) content. We argued that the temporal element within spatiotemporal should be the order/simultaneity of the event elements, but that it is not clear whether the spatial content should be egocentric or allocentric. We also argued that episodic recollection should be configural (tending towards all-or-nothing recall of the WWW elements). Our first deferred imitation experiment, using a two-dimensional (2D) display, produced superior-to-chance performance after 2.5 years but no evidence of configural memory. Moreover, performance did not differ from that on a What–What–What control task. Our second deferred imitation study required the children to reproduce actions on an object in a room, thereby affording layout-based spatial cues. In this case, not only was there superior-to-chance performance after 2.5 years but memory was also configural at both ages. We discuss the importance of allocentric spatial cues in episodic recall in early proto-episodic memory and reflect on the possible role of hippocampal development in this process.     

The face of memory: experiential avoidance and facial expressions during the retrieval of autobiographical memories

ABSTRACT

Experiential avoidance refers to attempts to control or suppress unwanted thoughts, feelings and emotions. We investigated whether experiential avoidance is associated with fewer facial expressions during autobiographical retrieval (i.e. retrieval of memory for personal information). We invited participants to retrieve autobiographical memories, and recall was analysed by a facial analysis software that detects and classifies emotional expressions. Participants were divided into high vs. low experiential avoidance. Analysis showed fewer emotional facial expressions in participants with high experiential avoidance than in those with low experiential avoidance during autobiographical retrieval. This low emotional expression can be regarded as an attempt by individuals with high experiential avoidance to avoid communicating the emotional load to others. This low emotional expression can be also regarded as an attempt by individuals with high experiential avoidance to control or suppress the internal events that contribute to the appearance or persistence of unwanted emotional states during retrieval.     

Implicit affectivity and rapid processing of affective body language: An fMRI study

Previous research has revealed affect‐congruity effects for the recognition of affects from faces. Little is known about the impact of affect on the perception of body language. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of implicit (versus explicit) affectivity with the recognition of briefly presented affective body expressions. Implicit affectivity, which can be measured using indirect assessment methods, has been found to be more predictive of spontaneous physiological reactions than explicit (self‐reported) affect. Thirty‐four healthy women had to label the expression of body postures (angry, fearful, happy, or neutral) presented for 66 ms and masked by a neutral body posture in a forced‐choice format while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants' implicit affectivity was assessed using the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test. Measures of explicit state and trait affectivity were also administered. Analysis of the fMRI data was focused on a subcortical network involved in the rapid perception of affective body expressions. Only implicit negative affect (but not explicit affect) was correlated with correct labeling performance for angry body posture. As expected, implicit negative affect was positively associated with activation of the subcortical network in response to fearful and angry expression (compared to neutral expression). Responses of the caudate nucleus to affective body expression were especially associated with its recognition. It appears that processes of rapid recognition of affects from body postures could be facilitated by an individual's implicit negative affect.     

The Sins of Their Fathers: When Current Generations Are Held to Account for the Transgressions of Previous Generations

When are current generations held accountable for transgressions committed by previous generations? In two studies, we test the prediction that current generations will only be assigned guilt for past atrocities when victim group members perceive high levels of cultural continuity between historical perpetrators and the current generation within the perpetrator group. Japanese participants were presented with information describing the current generation of Americans as either similar or dissimilar in personality to the Americans who were implicated in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan during World War II. The results of both studies revealed that victim group members assigned more guilt to current Americans when they perceived high (compared to low) outgroup continuity, and they did so relatively independently of the transgressor group's guilt expressions.     

Recognition of facial expressions of emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths: Valence-specific hypothesis

IntroductionPsychopaths with the dominant reduced interpersonal and affective ability are characterized by the hypofunction of the right hemisphere, while psychopaths with the dominant impulsivity and antisocial behavior are characterized by the hyperfunction of the left hemisphere. The assumption is that this interhemispheric imbalance in a psychopath will also be reflected in the recognition of facial emotional expressions.ObjectiveThe objective is to examine the lateralization of facial expressions of positive and negative emotions as well as processing of facial expressions of emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths.Participants48 male participants age 24–40 were voluntarily recruited from the psychiatric hospital in Nis, Serbia.Stimuli48 black-and-white photographs in two separate tasks were used for the stimulation with central and lateral exposition.ResultsCriminality is related to the reduced recognition of facial expression of surprise and not necessarily to psychopathy, whereas reduced recognition of facial expression of fear is related to psychopathy, but not criminality. Valence-specific hypothesis has not been confirmed for positive and negative emotions in criminal and non-criminal psychopaths and non-psychopaths, but it was shown that positive emotions are equally well processed in both hemispheres, whereas negative emotions are more successfully processed in the left hemisphere.     

Decoding facial blends of emotion: Visual field,attentional and hemispheric biases

Most clinical research assumes that modulation of facial expressions is lateralized predominantly across the right-left hemiface. However, social psychological research suggests that facial expressions are organized predominantly across the upper-lower face. Because humans learn to cognitively control facial expression for social purposes, the lower face may display a false emotion, typically a smile, to enable approach behavior. In contrast, the upper face may leak a person’s true feeling state by producing a brief facial blend of emotion, i.e. a different emotion on the upper versus lower face. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that upper facial emotions are processed preferentially by the right hemisphere under conditions of directed attention if facial blends of emotion are presented tachistoscopically to the mid left and right visual fields. This paper explores how facial blends are processed within the four visual quadrants. The results, combined with our previous research, demonstrate that lower more so than upper facial emotions are perceived best when presented to the viewer’s left and right visual fields just above the horizontal axis. Upper facial emotions are perceived best when presented to the viewer’s left visual field just above the horizontal axis under conditions of directed attention. Thus, by gazing at a person’s left ear, which also avoids the social stigma of eye-to-eye contact, one’s ability to decode facial expressions should be enhanced.     

How facial attractiveness affects sustained attention

The present study investigated whether and how facial attractiveness affects sustained attention. We adopted a multiple‐identity tracking paradigm, using attractive and unattractive faces as stimuli. Participants were required to track moving target faces amid distractor faces and report the final location of each target. In Experiment 1, the attractive and unattractive faces differed in both the low‐level properties (i.e., luminance, contrast, and color saturation) and high‐level properties (i.e., physical beauty and age). The results showed that the attractiveness of both the target and distractor faces affected the tracking performance: The attractive target faces were tracked better than the unattractive target faces; when the targets and distractors were both unattractive male faces, the tracking performance was poorer than when they were of different attractiveness. In Experiment 2, the low‐level properties of the facial images were equalized. The results showed that the attractive target faces were still tracked better than unattractive targets while the effects related to distractor attractiveness ceased to exist. Taken together, the results indicate that during attentional tracking the high‐level properties related to the attractiveness of the target faces can be automatically processed, and then they can facilitate the sustained attention on the attractive targets, either with or without the supplement of low‐level properties. On the other hand, only low‐level properties of the distractor faces can be processed. When the distractors share similar low‐level properties with the targets, they can be grouped together, so that it would be more difficult to sustain attention on the individual targets.     

The movement of internal facial features elicits 7 to 8‐month‐old infants' preference for face patterns

A preference for static face patterns is observed in newborns and disappears around 3 months after birth. A previous study has demonstrated that 5‐month‐old infants prefer schematic faces only when the internal features are moving, suggesting that face‐specific movement enhances infants' preference. The present study investigates the facilitative effect of the movement of internal facial features on infants' preference. To examine infants' preference, we used animated face patterns consisting of a head‐shaped contour and three disk blobs. The inner blobs expanded and contracted to represent the opening and closing of the eyes and mouth, and were constrained to open and close only in a biologically possible vertical direction resembling the facial muscle structure. We compared infants' preferential looking time for this vertically moving (VM) face pattern with their looking time for a horizontally moving (HM) face pattern in which blobs transformed at the same speed in a biologically impossible, horizontal direction. In Experiment 1, 7 to 8‐month‐olds preferred the VM to the HM, but 5 to 6‐month‐olds did not. However, the preference was diminished in both cases when the moving face patterns were presented without contour (Experiment 2). Our results suggest that internal facial features with vertical movements promote face preference in 7 to 8‐month‐olds. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.