Working Memory Maintenance Modulates Serial Dependence Effects of Perceived Emotional Expression

Abstract

The stability of face perception is vital in interpersonal interactions. Recent studies have revealed the mechanism of the stability in the perception of stable attributes of faces (such as facial identity) by serial dependence, a phenomenon in which perception of current stimuli is pulled toward recently viewed stimuli. However, whether serial dependence of perceived emotional expression (a changeable attribute of faces) exists remains controversial, and its exact nature has not been examined yet. To address these issues, we used the methods of constant stimuli and two-interval forced choice tasks in three psychophysical experiments. Participants compared two successive facial expressions selected from a continuum with 50 morphed faces ranging from sad to happy. Experiment 1a and 1b showed that a perceived facial expression pulled toward previously seen facial expressions (i.e., a significant serial dependence effect), independent of response instructions. Furthermore, a stronger serial dependence effect was found when the first facial expression was retained in working memory for a longer delay duration (Experiment 2), and yet a weaker serial dependence effect was observed when a longer delay between decision and response was performed (Experiment 3). These findings indicate that serial dependence facilitates the stability of facial expression perception and is modulated by working memory representations.

How positive emotional content overrules perceptual history effects: Hysteresis in emotion recognition

“…As a consequence, the processing of positive emotional information appears to be prioritized and to overrule recent perceptual experience effects stored in short-term memory, establishing current perception as if no recent perceptual history existed. This might reveal a competition between fundamental mechanisms of emotion processing and short-term memory contribution in the disambiguation process, adding to previous studies that have shown that working memory is able to modulate serial-dependent effects in emotional expression perception (Liberman et al, 2018;Hsu & Wu, 2019;Mei et al, 2019).…”

“…The participants' perceptions of the dynamic emotional transitions tested here were found to be dependent on the direction of stimulation, thereby revealing perceptual hysteresis. Earlier reports in emotion perception have shown short-term memory effects (Kobayashi & Hara, 1993;Sacharin et al, 2012;Liaci et al, 2018;Witthoft et al, 2018;Mei, Chen, & Dong, 2019). However, most of the previous studies have mainly focused on extreme comparisons between emotional expression apexes, disregarding the dimensions within the space of emotions and hysteresis (Young et al, 1997).…”

“…This type of effect has been described to reflect a short-term memory mechanistic contribution to decision-making processes (Pastukhov & Braun, 2008;Olkkonen & Allred, 2014;Liaci et al, 2018). The rationale is that short-term memory contributes to stabilizing a percept and reducing ambiguity (Fritsche et al, 2017;Liberman, Manassi, & Whitney, 2018;Mei et al, 2019), leading to positive hysteresis.…”

“…Future studies should be conducted to reveal the role of distinct brain regions during perceptual hysteresis, as temporal dependence has been suggested to occur at different levels of visual and cognitive processing, such as perception, attention, decision, and memory (Sacharin et al, 2012;Fritsche et al, 2017;Liaci et al, 2018;Liberman et al, 2018;Witthoft et al, 2018;Mei et al, 2019). For example, the amygdala and the superior temporal sulcus have been suggested to be involved in both emotion processing and perceptual hysteresis (Haxby, Ungerleider, Horwitz, Maisog, Rapoport, & Grady, 1996;Phelps, 2004;Sacharin et al, 2012;Fritsche et al, 2017;Liaci et al, 2018;Liberman et al, 2018;Witthoft et al, 2018;Mei et al, 2019).…”

Serial dependence revealed in history-dependent perceptual templates

“…Serial dependency in perception has been observed across a wide range of visual attributes. [3][4][5][8][9][10][11][12]16,23,50 From a broader perspective, such hysteretic effects are ubiquitous in higher cognitive processes as well, including attention, 51 working memory, 52 and decision making. 53 This series of studies suggests that similar computational algorithms are implemented at multiple processing stages.…”