Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning

Maarten Valentijn Milders; A. Sahraie; S. Logan; Niamh Donnellon

doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.

Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning

Maarten Valentijn Milders, A. Sahraie, S. Logan, Niamh Donnellon

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

106 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A central question in perception is how stimuli are selected for access to awareness. This study investigated the impact of emotional meaning on detection of faces using the attention blink paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that fearful faces were detected more frequently than neutral faces, and Experiment 2 revealed preferential detection of fearful faces compared with happy faces. To rule out image artifacts as a cause for these results, Experiment 3 manipulated the emotional meaning of neutral faces through fear conditioning and showed a selective increase in detection of conditioned faces. These results extend previous reports of preferential detection of emotional words or schematic objects and suggest that fear conditioning can modulate detection of formerly neutral stimuli.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	10-17
Number of pages	7
Journal	Emotion
Volume	6
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.6.
Publication status	Published - Feb 2006

Keywords

awareness
faces
meaning
threat
ATTENTIONAL BLINK
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
NEGATIVE STIMULI
MASKED STIMULI
HUMAN AMYGDALA
FEAR
TASK
PERCEPTION
RESPONSES
SELECTION

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title = "Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning",

abstract = "A central question in perception is how stimuli are selected for access to awareness. This study investigated the impact of emotional meaning on detection of faces using the attention blink paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that fearful faces were detected more frequently than neutral faces, and Experiment 2 revealed preferential detection of fearful faces compared with happy faces. To rule out image artifacts as a cause for these results, Experiment 3 manipulated the emotional meaning of neutral faces through fear conditioning and showed a selective increase in detection of conditioned faces. These results extend previous reports of preferential detection of emotional words or schematic objects and suggest that fear conditioning can modulate detection of formerly neutral stimuli.",

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AU - Sahraie, A.

AU - Logan, S.

AU - Donnellon, Niamh

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AB - A central question in perception is how stimuli are selected for access to awareness. This study investigated the impact of emotional meaning on detection of faces using the attention blink paradigm. Experiment 1 showed that fearful faces were detected more frequently than neutral faces, and Experiment 2 revealed preferential detection of fearful faces compared with happy faces. To rule out image artifacts as a cause for these results, Experiment 3 manipulated the emotional meaning of neutral faces through fear conditioning and showed a selective increase in detection of conditioned faces. These results extend previous reports of preferential detection of emotional words or schematic objects and suggest that fear conditioning can modulate detection of formerly neutral stimuli.

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KW - meaning

KW - threat

KW - ATTENTIONAL BLINK

KW - FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

KW - NEGATIVE STIMULI

KW - MASKED STIMULI

KW - HUMAN AMYGDALA

KW - FEAR

KW - TASK

KW - PERCEPTION

KW - RESPONSES

KW - SELECTION

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DO - 10.1037/1528-3542.6.

M3 - Article

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VL - 6

SP - 10

EP - 17

JO - Emotion

JF - Emotion

IS - 1

ER -

Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning

Abstract

Keywords

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