The effect of spatial frequency information and visual similarity in threat detection

Abstract

In the current research, we sought to examine the role of spatial frequency on the detection of threat using a speeded visual search paradigm. Participants searched for threat-relevant (snakes or spiders) or non-threat-relevant (frogs or cockroaches) targets in an array of neutral (flowers or mushrooms) distracters, and we measured search performance with images filtered to contain different levels (high and low) of spatial frequency information. The results replicate previous work demonstrating more rapid detection of threatening versus non-threatening stimuli [e.g. LoBue, V. & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children. Psychological Science, 19, 284-289. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02081.x]. Most importantly, the results suggest that low spatial frequency or relatively coarse levels of visual information is sufficient for the rapid and accurate detection of threatening stimuli. Furthermore, the results also suggest that visual similarity between the stimuli used in the search tasks plays a significant role in speeded detection. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications for the rapid detection of threat and methodological implications for properly accounting for similarity between the stimuli in visual search studies.

The priority of goal-relevant information and evolutionarily threatening information in early attention processing:Evidence from behavioral and ERP study

“…On the one hand, the behavioral data showed that participants avoided evolutionarily threatening information in the later stage of attention. Previous studies have shown that in the early stage of attention, individuals will focus their attention on evolutionarily threatening information 42 . In the later stages, individuals tend to avoid threatening information 43,44 .…”

Trypophobic images induce oculomotor capture and inhibition

“…Theories of visual perception have suggested that the first stage of visual analysis includes the processing of spatial frequencies (e.g., Hegde, 2008;Kauffmann, Ramanoël, & Peyrin, 2014). Moreover, several studies have suggested that spatial frequencies play an important role in an effective detection-avoidance strategy (e.g., Bannerman, Hibbard, Chalmers, & Sahraie, 2012;Gao, LoBue, Irving, & Harvey, 2017). We showed that even when the phase information was scrambled, the trypophobic images elicited more discomfort than the fearful and neutral images.…”

Does Threat Have an Advantage After All? – Proposing a Novel Experimental Design to Investigate the Advantages of Threat-Relevant Cues in Visual Processing

“…In our view, the fact that the interactions between the origin of the background and the stimuli were specific to neutral targets suggest that threat itself has an advantage in processing as it is less sensitive to context, and other variables (Carretié et al, 2017; X. Gao et al, 2017). This effect has been shown consistently throughout both experiments.…”

“…Plenty of research (X. Mineka and Öhman, 2002; Öhman and Mineka, 2003; Isbister and White, 2004; Soares et al, 2009a, 2017; Gao et al, 2017) showed that these animals – especially snakes (Soares et al, 2009b, 2014; Gomes et al, 2017) – had been present as human species evolved, and posed as a real threat to our species. This suggests that fast and accurate detection of potentially lethal animals might have been under positive selection in the evolutionary past (but cf.…”