Much is known about development of the ability to label facial expressions of emotion (e.g., as happy or sad), but rather less is known about the emergence of more complex emotional face processing skills. The present study investigates one such advanced skill: the ability to tell if someone is genuinely feeling an emotion or just pretending (i.e., authenticity discrimination). Previous studies have shown that children can discriminate authenticity of happy faces, using expression intensity as an important cue, but have not tested the negative emotions of sadness or fear. Here, children aged 8-12 years (n = 85) and adults (n = 57) viewed pairs of faces in which one face showed a genuinely-felt emotional expression (happy, sad, or scared) and the other face showed a pretend version. For happy faces, children discriminated authenticity above chance, although they performed more poorly than adults. For sad faces, for which our pretend and genuine images were equal in intensity, adults could discriminate authenticity, but children could not. Neither age group could discriminate authenticity of the fear faces. Results also showed that children judged authenticity based on intensity information alone for all three expressions tested, while adults used a combination of intensity and other factor/s. In addition, novel results show that individual differences in empathy (both cognitive and affective) correlated with authenticity discrimination for happy faces in adults, but not children. Overall, our results indicate late maturity of skills needed to accurately determine the authenticity of emotions from facial information alone, and raise questions about how this might affect social interactions in late childhood and the teenage years.
The N1, Tb, and P2 components of the event-related potential (ERP) are thought to reflect the sequential processing of auditory stimuli in the human brain. Despite their extensive use in biological, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience, there are no guidelines for how to appropriately power ERP studies using these components. In the present study, we investigated how the number of trials, number of participants, effect magnitude, and study design influenced statistical power. Using Monte Carlo simulations of ERP data from a passive listening task, we determined the probability of finding a statistically significant effect in 58,900 experiments repeated 1,000 times each. We found that as the number of trials, number of participants, and effect magnitude increased, so did statistical power. We also found that increasing the number of trials had a bigger effect on statistical power for within-subject designs than for between-subject designs, and that within-subject designs required a smaller number of trials and participants to provide the same level of statistical power for a given effect magnitude than between-subject designs. These results show that it is important to carefully consider these factors when designing ERP studies, rather than relying on tradition or anecdotal evidence. To improve the robustness and reproducibility of ERP research, we have built an online statistical power calculator (https://bradleynjack.shinyapps.io/ErpPowerCalculator), which we hope will allow researchers to estimate the statistical power of previous studies, as well as help them design appropriately-powered studies in the future.
Abstract Depictions of sadness are commonplace, and here we aimed to discover and catalogue the complex and nuanced ways that people interpret sad facial expressions. We used a rigorous qualitative methodology to build a thematic framework from 3,243 open-ended responses from 41 people who participated in 2020 and described what they thought sad expressors in 80 images were thinking, feeling, and/or intending to do. Face images were sourced from a novel set of naturalistic expressions (ANU Real Facial Expression Database), as well as a traditional posed expression database (Radboud Faces Database). The resultant framework revealed clear themes around the expressors’ thoughts (e.g., acceptance, contemplation, disbelief), social needs (e.g., social support or withdrawal), social behaviours/intentions (e.g., mock or manipulate), and the precipitating events (e.g., social or romantic conflict). Expressions that were perceived as genuine were more frequently described as thinking deeply, reflecting, or feeling regretful, whereas those perceived as posed were more frequently described as exaggerated, overamplified, or dramatised. Overall, findings highlight that facial expressions — even with high levels of consensus about the emotion category they belong to — are interpreted in nuanced and complex ways that emphasise their role as other-oriented social tools, and convey semantically related emotion categories that share smooth gradients with one another. Our novel thematic framework also provides an important foundation for future work aimed at understanding variation in the social functions of sadness, including exploring potential differences in interpretations across cultural settings.
Abstract Purpose Recent literature highlights that no emotion regulation strategy is universally helpful or harmful. The present study aimed to build understanding of for whom and what cognitive reappraisal is helpful, by testing the influential hypothesis that reappraisal is most helpful when there is good individual or situational capacity to apply this strategy effectively. Methods The present study tested how eight variables theorised to be associated with the effectiveness of reappraisal moderated the link between reappraisal use and changes in depression, anxiety, loneliness, functional impairment, and wellbeing in a nationally representative sample, over three ( n = 752) and twelve month ( n = 512) periods. Results Contrary to our hypothesis, we found reappraisal was most beneficial for individuals or in situations characterised by additional vulnerabilities (e.g., average or high levels of stress, neuroticism, difficulty identifying feelings, or poor self-efficacy). Results also support prior evidence that reappraisal can be more helpful for improving wellbeing than reducing mental health symptoms. Conclusions Altogether, our findings provide new insight into the complex nature of relationships between reappraisal and psychological outcomes. A key clinical implication is that reappraisal may be particularly helpful for people with stable vulnerabilities (e.g., neuroticism).
Midlife smoking continues to be a problem in Australia, with substantial personal, social, and financial costs. Yet the specific characteristics and needs of this group have been largely overlooked. Here we review the literature for the purposes of (1) profiling the characteristics of midlife smokers and (2) assessing the effectiveness of interventions for this group. This review shows midlife smokers differ from younger smokers in important ways: they underestimate the costs of smoking and overestimate the benefits, and are less confident in their ability to quit. The few studies investigating age‐tailored interventions have shown these to be effective in reducing midlife smoking. Still, research in this area is limited, with only one study conducted during the past decade that investigated smoking interventions for those in midlife. Clearly there is a need for smoking cessation interventions for midlife smokers that are tailored to the specific beliefs and needs of this unique group. Future research should focus on establishing the best methods for interventions for those individuals who are resistant to earlier interventions and still continue smoking into midlife. Interventions may benefit from incorporating recent evidence about the less obvious costs associated with midlife smoking, including later‐life neurological disease.
The Duchenne marker-crow's feet wrinkles at the corner of the eyes-has a reputation for signaling genuine positive emotion in smiles. Here, we test whether this facial action might be better conceptualized as a marker of emotional intensity, rather than genuineness per se, and examine its perceptual outcomes beyond smiling, in sad expressions. For smiles, we found ratings of emotional intensity (how happy a face is) were unable to fully account for the effect of Duchenne status (present vs. absent) on ratings of emotion genuineness. The Duchenne marker made a unique direct contribution to the perceived genuineness of smiles, supporting its reputation for signaling genuine emotion in smiling. In contrast, across 4 experiments, we found Duchenne sad expressions were not rated as any more genuine or sincere than non-Duchenne ones. The Duchenne marker did however make sad expressions look sadder and more negative, just like it made smiles look happier and more positive. Together, these findings argue the Duchenne marker has an important role in sad as well as smiling expressions, but is interpreted differently in sad expressions (contributions to intensity only) compared with smiles (emotion genuineness independently of intensity). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Abstract Holistic processing and face space coding are widely considered primary perceptual mechanisms behind good face recognition. Here, however, we present the case of S.P., a developmental prosopagnosic who demonstrated severe impairments in face memory and face perception, yet showed normal holistic processing and face space coding. Across three composite experiments, S.P. showed normal-strength holistic processing for upright faces and no composite effect for inverted faces. Across five aftereffect experiments, S.P. showed normal-sized face aftereffects, which derived normally from face space rather than shape-generic mechanisms. The case of S.P. implies: (a) normal holistic processing and face space coding can be insufficient for good face recognition even when present in combination; and (b) the focus of recent literature on holistic processing and face space should be expanded to include other potential face processing mechanisms (e.g., part-based processing). Our article also highlights the importance of internal task reliability in drawing inferences from single-case studies. Keywords: Face perceptionFace recognitionDevelopmental prosopagnosiaHolistic processingFace spaceComposite effectFace adaptationFace aftereffect Acknowledgments We are extremely grateful to S.P. for her generosity, time, and interest, and we thank Devin Bowles for referring her to us. We also thank: Bradley Duchaine and Raka Tavashmi for providing us with their Cambridge Car Memory Test (CCMT); Anne Aimola Davies for directing us to literature on 95% confidence intervals (CIs) in neuropsychology; Davide Rivolta and Mary Broughton for testing some controls on the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science Famous Face Test (MACCS FFT). Daphne Maurer and Mayu Nishimura codesigned (with L.J. and G.R.) the original method for the identity aftereffect task used in Experiment 4. This research was supported by Australian Research Council Grants DP0450636 and DP0984558 to E.M., DP0770923 to L.J., and DP0877379 to G.R. T.S. is grateful for scholarship support from Australian National University (ANU) Centre for Visual Sciences and overseas student fee waiver from ANU Department of Psychology. T.S. and E.M. designed the study, wrote the paper, and take responsibility for task selection, data analysis, results interpretation, and theoretical claims. T.S. tested S.P. R.P. contributed to choice of neuropsychological tests. All other contributions involved provision of previously unpublished tasks and/or control data: H. Dennett for task creation and control data for Experiment 6 (face expansion–contraction aftereffect) and Experiment 7 (horse aftereffect); H. Darke for task creation and control data for Experiment 2 (composite front-view adult faces); A.H. and M.P. for control data and its analysis for CCMT; A.D. for control data and its analysis for Experiment 1 (three-quarter-view composite); E.W. and R.P. for task creation and some control data for MACCS FFT 2008; L.J., G.R., R.P., and E.W. for task creation and control data for Experiment 4 (identity aftereffect). Notes 1Note that little is known about the relationship between holistic processing and face space coding. It is not known whether one precedes the other in time course, or whether they occur in parallel, or even whether they might, in some currently not-understood manner, be two ways of tapping the same underlying mechanisms (for discussion, see Susilo, McKone, & Edwards, Citation2010a). 2Herzmann, Danthir, Schacht, Sommer, and Wilhelm Citation(2008) computed a reliability of .23 for their composite task, but we excluded this report because their task did not produce a composite effect. 3For example, S.P. has not been tested as to whether she shows identity-contingent aftereffects (e.g., adaptation to contraction for one identity and simultaneously expansion for another; Robbins & Heck, Citation2009; Yamashita, Hardy, DeValois, & Webster, Citation2005). 4And also indicating that, in contrast to the suggestion of Konar et al. Citation(2010), holistic processing can be functionally associated with face individuation ability.
Three theoretical explanations for the affective facet of psychopathy were tested in individuals with high levels of callous unemotional (CU) traits. Theory 1 (Blair) proposes specific difficulties in processing others' distress (particularly fear). Theory 2 (Dadds) argues for lack of attention to the eyes of faces. Theory 3 (Newman) proposes enhanced selective attention. The theories make contrasting predictions about how CU traits would affect cueing of attention from eye-gaze direction in distressed (i.e., fearful) faces; eye-gaze direction in nondistressed (i.e., happy, neutral) faces; and nonsocial stimuli (arrows). High CU adults (n = 33) showed reduced attentional cueing compared with low CU adults (n = 75) equally across all conditions (eye-gaze in distressed and nondistressed faces, arrows). The high CU group's ability to suppress following of eye-gaze emerged with practice while the low CU group showed no such reduction in gaze-cueing with practice. Overall accuracy and RTs were not different for the low and high CU groups indicating equivalent task engagement. Results support an enhanced selective attention account-consistent with Newman and colleagues' Response Modulation Hypothesis--in which high CU individuals are able to suppress goal-irrelevant social and nonsocial information. The current study also provides novel evidence regarding the nature of gaze-following by tracking practice effects across blocks. While supporting the common assumption that following of gaze is typically mandatory, the results also imply this can be modified by individual differences in personality.
Recent work has cast doubt on whether the strength of motivation (strength of avoidance or approach tendencies) experienced while viewing emotion-eliciting pictures is dissociable from felt valence (negative versus positive). The present study extended this work by testing specific discrete emotions (amusement, anger, awe, desire, sadness). Previous work has proposed separate motivational direction (avoid versus approach) from valence. In Study 1, participants (N = 60) rated the motivational direction or valence they experienced while viewing 100 pictures that each evoked one of the five discrete emotions. We found significant differences between average motivational direction and valence ratings for sadness, anger, and amusement. Critically, underlying these averages, we found that while valence responses were highly consistent, there was large variability in motivational direction, with some people indicating they wanted to approach and others indicating they wanted to avoid while viewing the same picture. Individual differences in motivational direction were largest for sadness, so in Study 2 (N = 100) we tested whether they were predicted by appraisals of the situation (e.g., ratings of how welcome or useful people believed their help would be). The three appraisals tested accounted for 64% of the variance in motivational direction, after which valence made a very small unique contribution. These findings highlight that motivational direction and valence can diverge. Given the variability in individuals' motivational direction responses, future studies designed to assess the effects of motivational direction on cognitive processes need to tailor stimuli for each participant to ensure they activate the intended motivational direction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
'/%3e%3c/defs%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0h10080v5040H0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='.6' d='m0 0 6 3m0-3L0 3' clip-path='url(%23b)' transform='scale(840)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23e4002b' stroke-width='.4' d='m0 0 6 3m0-3L0 3' clip-path='url(%23c)' transform='scale(840)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='840' d='M2520 0v2520M0 1260h5040'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23e4002b' stroke-width='504' d='M2520 0v2520M0 1260h5040'/%3e%3cg fill='%23fff'%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23d' x='2520' y='3780'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='7560' y='4200'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='6300' y='2205'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='7560' y='840'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' x='8680' y='1869'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23e' x='8064' y='2730'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)
'%3e%3cpath fill='%23012169' d='M0 0v30h60V0z'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='6' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='4' d='m0 0 60 30m0-30L0 30' clip-path='url(%23b)'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23fff' stroke-width='10' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3cpath stroke='%23C8102E' stroke-width='6' d='M30 0v30M0 15h60'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3c/svg%3e)