Objects that direct visuospatial attention produce the search advantage for facing dyads.

Vestner, Tim; Over, Harriet; Gray, Katie; Cook, Richard

doi:10.1037/xge0001067

Cited by 28 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Evidence suggests that this approach can produce high-quality data comparable with that obtained from in-person testing [ 53 – 55 ]. To give recent examples from our own research, we have found that online testing has produced clear, replicable results in visual search [ 56 , 57 ] and attention cueing [ 58 , 59 ] experiments, and studies of visual illusions [ 60 , 61 ]. However, we acknowledge that this approach is associated with some well-known limitations [ 25 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does the presence of a surgical face mask impair the perceived intensity of facial emotions?

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of surgical-type face masks has become increasingly common during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent findings suggest that it is harder to categorise the facial expressions of masked faces, than of unmasked faces. To date, studies of the effects of mask-wearing on emotion recognition have used categorisation paradigms: authors have presented facial expression stimuli and examined participants’ ability to attach the correct label (e.g., happiness, disgust). While the ability to categorise particular expressions is important, this approach overlooks the fact that expression intensity is also informative during social interaction. For example, when predicting an interactant’s future behaviour, it is useful to know whether they are slightly fearful or terrified, contented or very happy, slightly annoyed or angry. Moreover, because categorisation paradigms force observers to pick a single label to describe their percept, any additional dimensionality within observers’ interpretation is lost. In the present study, we adopted a complementary emotion-intensity rating paradigm to study the effects of mask-wearing on expression interpretation. In an online experiment with 120 participants (82 female), we investigated how the presence of face masks affects the perceived emotional profile of prototypical expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise. For each of these facial expressions, we measured the perceived intensity of all six emotions. We found that the perceived intensity of intended emotions (i.e., the emotion that the actor intended to convey) was reduced by the presence of a mask for all expressions except for anger. Additionally, when viewing all expressions except surprise, masks increased the perceived intensity of non-intended emotions (i.e., emotions that the actor did not intend to convey). Intensity ratings were unaffected by presentation duration (500ms vs 3000ms), or attitudes towards mask wearing. These findings shed light on the ambiguity that arises when interpreting the facial expressions of masked faces.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How does the presence of a surgical face mask impair the perceived intensity of facial emotions?

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Evidence suggests that this approach can produce high-quality data comparable to that obtained from in-person testing [ 46 – 48 ]. To give recent examples from our own research, we have found that online testing has produced clear, replicable results in visual search [ 49 , 50 ] and attention cueing [ 51 , 52 ] experiments, and studies of visual illusions [ 53 , 54 ]. However, we acknowledge that this approach is associated with some well-known limitations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment

2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) is a self-report questionnaire used for quantifying prosopagnosic traits. This scale is intended to help researchers identify cases of developmental prosopagnosia by providing standardized self-report evidence to complement diagnostic evidence obtained from objective computer-based tasks. In order to respond appropriately to items, prosopagnosics must have some insight that their face recognition is well below average, while non-prosopagnosics need to understand that their relative face recognition ability falls within the typical range. There has been considerable debate about whether participants have the necessary insight into their face recognition abilities to respond appropriately. In the present study, we sought to determine whether the PI20 provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment. In keeping with the intended use of the instrument, we used PI20 scores to identify two groups: high-PI20 scorers (those with self-reported face recognition difficulties) and low-PI20 scorers (those with no self-reported face recognition difficulties). We found that participant groups distinguished on the basis of PI20 scores clearly differed in terms of their mean performance on objective measures of face recognition ability. We also found that high-PI20 scorers were more likely to achieve levels of face recognition accuracy associated with developmental prosopagnosia.

show abstract

“…In order to further test the directional cueing hypothesis, we examined whether we could replicate this effect using two types of nonsocial stimuli: arrows, which are abstract symbols that have an obvious direction, and room fans, which are common everyday objects that have canonical front and back components. These two stimuli have been shown to direct spatial attention in an automatic way (Kuhn & Kingstone, 2009;Vestner, Over, Gray, & Cook, 2021a). Both types of stimuli can be arranged in pairs to face either toward each other, or away from each other.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a search advantage for face-to-face people when hidden in dyads versus being hidden back-to-back pairs Vestner et al, 2019). A recent study found a similar search advantage for pairs of arrows (Vestner et al, 2020), and lamps and cars (Vestner, Over, Gray, & Cook, 2021a), which are nonsocial targets. These results indicate that lowlevel attentional features induced by the configuration of directional cues could account for the processing advantages of front-to-front figures, at least in visual search tasks.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

The spatial distance compression effect is due to social interaction and not mere configuration

Sun

et al. 2021

Psychon Bull Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in perception, evaluation, and memory for social interactions from a third-person perspective. One intriguing finding is a spatial distance compression effect when target dyads are facing each other. Specifically, face-to-face dyads are remembered as being spatially closer than back-to-back dyads. There is a vibrant debate about the mechanism behind this effect, and two hypotheses have been proposed. According to the social interaction hypothesis, face-to-face dyads engage a binding process that represents them as a social unit, which compresses the perceived distance between them. In contrast, the configuration hypothesis holds that the effect is produced by the front-to-front configuration of the two visual targets. In the present research we sought to test these accounts. In Experiment 1 we successfully replicated the distance compression effect with two upright faces that were facing each other, but not with inverted faces. In contrast, we found no distance compression effect with three types of nonsocial stimuli: arrows (Experiment 2a), fans (Experiment 2b), and cars (Experiment 3). In Experiment 4, we replicated this effect with another social stimuli: upright bodies. Taken together, these results provide strong support for the social interaction hypothesis.

show abstract

Objects that direct visuospatial attention produce the search advantage for facing dyads.

Cited by 28 publications

References 42 publications

How does the presence of a surgical face mask impair the perceived intensity of facial emotions?

How does the presence of a surgical face mask impair the perceived intensity of facial emotions?

The Twenty Item Prosopagnosia Index (PI20) provides meaningful evidence of face recognition impairment

The spatial distance compression effect is due to social interaction and not mere configuration

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About