2021
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87881-w
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The image features of emotional faces that predict the initial eye movement to a face

Abstract: Emotional facial expressions are important visual communication signals that indicate a sender’s intent and emotional state to an observer. As such, it is not surprising that reactions to different expressions are thought to be automatic and independent of awareness. What is surprising, is that studies show inconsistent results concerning such automatic reactions, particularly when using different face stimuli. We argue that automatic reactions to facial expressions can be better explained, and better understo… Show more

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Cited by 8 publications
(8 citation statements)
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“…Nevertheless, there is still some doubt as to whether this process is supported by the interpretation of the emotional content. For example, it is possible that when looking for neutral or emotional faces, participants choose to check for emotional faces first, for example, by looking for an open mouth, which is the most salient feature (Calvo & Nummenmaa, 2008; Horstmann et al., 2012; Stuit et al., 2021). Such a strategy would prioritize emotional faces, not because they are meaningful, but because they have configurations that make them easier to see (because happy and most fearful faces do have an open mouth).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Nevertheless, there is still some doubt as to whether this process is supported by the interpretation of the emotional content. For example, it is possible that when looking for neutral or emotional faces, participants choose to check for emotional faces first, for example, by looking for an open mouth, which is the most salient feature (Calvo & Nummenmaa, 2008; Horstmann et al., 2012; Stuit et al., 2021). Such a strategy would prioritize emotional faces, not because they are meaningful, but because they have configurations that make them easier to see (because happy and most fearful faces do have an open mouth).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For the current experiment, we compare access to awareness between angry, happy, and neutral faces. Not only do these expressions relate to previous research showing a bias for positive faces compared to negative faces, but they also allow for a better link to the visual search literature, where inconsistency concerning the relative speeds for finding happy versus angry faces has led to critical evaluation of the influences of differences in basic image features 34 39 .…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 80%
“…Since contrast sensitivity varies with spatial frequency 31 and orientation 32 , images will vary in their stimulus strength (e.g., how sensitive humans are to them). This is especially relevant since spatial frequency and orientation content are now shown to be predictive for both initial eye movements 39 and access to awareness between two faces, based on the spatial frequency and orientation content of the images. This explanation is in line with previous research showing that it is the effective contrast of the images, and not the emotional content, that is relevant for attracting attention 19 , 42 .…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…More generally, when using stimuli with intrinsic affective value such as emotional facial expressions, it is impossible to disentangle effects reflecting emotional meaning versus low-level image features. This issue has not only been highlighted by the aforementioned studies on the role of low-level features in the b-CFS fear advantage (Gray et al, 2013;Hedger et al, 2015;Stein et al, 2014) but also by other recent, non-CFS studies showing that basic perceptual effects of emotional faces are better explained by differences in low-level features than by differences in emotional meaning (Hedger et al, 2019;Savage & Lipp, 2015;Stuit et al, 2021). To overcome this limitation and to determine whether preattentive detection of genuine fear content (vs. image features intertwined with fear content) is unimpaired in psychopathy, future studies could associate neutral stimuli with emotional meaning through associative learning protocols such as fear conditioning (Gayet et al, 2016).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 95%