Spatial aspects of binocular rivalry in emotional faces

Kay Ritchie, Rachel Bannerman, Arash Sahraie

Research output: Contribution to journalAbstract

Abstract

Previous research has shown that emotional content can influence dominance duration in binocular rivalry, with the period of dominance for an emotional image (e.g. a fearful face) being significantly longer than a neutral image (e.g. a neutral face or a house). Furthermore, it has been found that the greater the foveal eccentricity of a rival pair of simple images, the slower the rate of rivalry. The current study combined these two findings to investigate the dominance of faces and the rate of rivalry in the periphery. Rival face (fearful or neutral) and house pairs subtending 5.2° × 6.7° were either viewed foveally, or the near edge of the stimuli was at 1× or at 4° eccentricity. While neutral faces dominated over houses in only the foveal condition, fearful faces dominated over houses in all three conditions. There was no effect of eccentricity on the rate of rivalry. These results provide support for the dominance of face stimuli over house stimuli, particularly for faces displaying fearful expressions.
Original languageEnglish
Article number351
Number of pages1
JournalJournal of Vision
Volume10
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Aug 2010
EventVision Sciences Society - Naples, Florida, United States
Duration: 7 May 201012 May 2010

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