Visual search is not blind to emotion

Gerritsen, Cory; Frischen, Alexandra; Blake, Adam B.; Smilek, Daniel; Eastwood, John D.

doi:10.3758/pp.70.6.1047

Cited by 46 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Emotion affects attentional processes such as focused attention and visual search (Öhman et al, 2001), and low-level visual processes such as contrast sensitivity (Phelps et al, 2006). Even when labels such as "peaceful" and "hostile" are merely conditioned to pictures of neutral faces, they can lead to slower or faster visual search results (Gerritsen, Frischen, Blake, Smilek, & Eastwood, 2008). Interestingly, and opposite of these findings, an approach reaction (executed with a joystick) to happy faces is faster than an avoidance reaction to angry faces (Nikitin & Freund, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threatening pictures induce shortened time-to-contact estimates

Brendel

DeLucia

Hecht

et al. 2012

Atten Percept Psychophys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to estimate the time remaining until collision occurs with an approaching object (time-to-collision, TTC) is crucial for any mobile animal. In the present study, we report three experiments examining whether higher level cognitive factors, represented by affective value of approaching objects, could affect judgments of TTC. A theory of TTC estimates based purely on the optical variable tau does not predict an influence of the affective value of an approaching object. In Experiments 1 and 2, we compared TTC estimates of threatening and neutral pictures that approached our participants on a screen and disappeared from view before a collision would have occurred. Images were taken from the International Affective Picture System. Threatening pictures-in particular, the picture of a frontal attack-were judged to collide earlier than neutral pictures. In Experiment 3, the approaching stimuli were faces with different emotional expressions. TTC tended to be underestimated for angry faces. We discuss these results, considering the roles of affective and cognitive mechanisms modulating TTC estimation and general time perception.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Threatening pictures induce shortened time-to-contact estimates

Brendel

DeLucia

Hecht

et al. 2012

Atten Percept Psychophys

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As was discussed by Gerritsen et al (2008), "It is also possible that the meaning of a target stimulus . .…”

Section: More General Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the very heart of the fear response hypothesis is the idea that "the visual system is capable of preattentively using information about the emotional valence of a target item before that target item becomes the focus of attention" (Gerritsen, Frischen, Blake, Smilek, & Eastwood, 2008, p. 1056. In attempting to try to make sense of this claim, it has been assumed that any sort of target detection fundamentally rests on a visual analysis of the scene.…”

Section: More General Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The visual detection of threat: A cautionary tale

Quinlan

2013

Psychon Bull Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The fear response hypothesis and the associated claim that humans have an evolutionary propensity to detect threats automatically in their immediate visual environment are critically appraised. This review focuses on reports of visual search experiments in which participants were tested with speeded oddball tasks in which the search displays contained photographic images of naturally occurring entities. In such tasks, participants have to judge whether all the images are from one category or whether the display contains a distinctive image. The evidence, which has been used to support the fear response hypothesis, is assessed against a series of concerns that relate to stimulus factors and stimulus selection. It is shown that when careful consideration is given to such methodological details, it becomes very difficult to defend the fear response hypothesis. It is concluded that, at present, the fear response hypothesis has no convincing empirical support, and it is urged that, in the future, researchers who wish to study visual threat detection take stimulus selection much more seriously.

show abstract

“…However, as Gerritsen, Frischen, Blake, Smilek and Eastwood (2008) point out, with a fixed set size one cannot dissociate the effects of attentional guidance from effects occurring after the target has been found (see also Eastwood et al, 2001, for discussion of this point). For example, it is possible that both upward and inverted triangles can be found equally efficiently (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotional triangles: A test of emotion-based attentional capture by simple geometric shapes

Watson

Blagrove

Selwood

2011

Cognition and Emotion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Previous work has proposed that simple geometric shapes, carrying the features present within negative or threatening faces are especially effective at capturing or guiding attention. Here we test this account and provide converging evidence for a threat-based attentional advantage. Experiment 1 found that downwards pointing triangles continue to be detected more efficiently than upwards pointing triangles when: (i) both overall RT and search slope measures are obtained, and (ii) when the set size is varied and the stimuli are presented in random configurations. Experiment 2 tested and ruled out an alternative account of the selection advantage, based on differences between triangle shape consistencies with scene perspective cues. Overall, the data provide converging evidence that simple geometric shapes, which might be particularly important in providing emotional signals in faces, can also attract attention preferentially even when presented outside of a face context.

show abstract

Visual search is not blind to emotion

Cited by 46 publications

References 58 publications

Threatening pictures induce shortened time-to-contact estimates

Threatening pictures induce shortened time-to-contact estimates

The visual detection of threat: A cautionary tale

Emotional triangles: A test of emotion-based attentional capture by simple geometric shapes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About