Naslov
Change detection of facial emotional expressions

Autori
Švegar, Domagoj

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Ocjenski radovi, doktorska disertacija

Fakultet
Filozofska fakulteta

Mjesto
Ljubljana

Datum
28.10

Godina
2010

Stranica
150

Mentor
Polič, Marko

Neposredni voditelj
Kardum, Igor

Ključne riječi
emotional facial expressions; change detection paradigm

Sažetak
The present study was constructed in order to provide answers to four problems. Problem 1: To investigate which affective component governs the cognitive processing of emotional facial expressions. Currently, three hypothesis exist, each of which received certain amount of experimental support: the threat hypothesis, the negativity hypothesis and the emotionality hypothesis. Problem 2: To evaluate the hypothesis of Williams et al. (2005), who believe that when a fearful face occurs in a crowd of faces, the observers divert attention away from that face in order to locate the source of its fear, because that same source could be threatening for the observer too. Problem 3: To investigate whether fearful and surprised expressions are independent facial expressions, or not. Problem 4: Te estimate the capacity of visual working memory for emotional facial expressions. Numerous studies using various methodological approaches specialized for the experimental investigation of cognitive processing of emotional facial expressions (e.g. visual search tasks, dot probe paradigms, eye-movement monitoring) attempted to solve some of these problems, but they were unsuccessful. Therefore, a procedure constructed primarily for the research of attention, vision, working memory and consciousness (change detection paradigm) was applied in the field of cognitive processing of human emotional expressions in the present study. Twenty-four participants were presented with pictures of human emotional facial expressions, in 1008 experimental trials per participant. Each of these trials began with a presentation of a fixation mark, which was followed by a short simultaneous presentation of six emotional facial expressions. After that, a blank screen was presented, and after such interstimulus interval, one facial expression was presented at one of the six previously occupied locations. Participants had to answer if the facial expression presented at test is different or the same as the expression presented at that same location before the retention interval. The percentages of correct answers and reaction times were analysed. It can be concluded that neither the threat, nor the emotionality nor the negativity hypothesis received any support. Williams et al.'s (2005) hypothesis was also not corroborated. No strong evidence against the theory according to which the emotions of fear and surprise are discrete was found. Instead, all analyses consistently revealed the happy face superiority in cognitive processing – happy facial expressions are heavily prioritized by our cognitive system. Although these results were unexpected, they fit well into the evolutionary framework, and they are consistent with numerous previous findings. It was elaborated that smiling is an evolutionally developed behaviour, which is adaptive for the receiver and for the sender and has positive effects on social relationships. Happy faces receive priority from our cognitive system, because observers clearly benefit from detecting, recognizing and memorizing the location of a happy face in a crowd.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Psihologija

POVEZANOST RADA