TY - JOUR
T1 - Preferential processing of threatening facial expressions using the repetition blindness paradigm
AU - Mowszowski, Loren
AU - McDonald, Skye
AU - Wang, Danielle
AU - Bornhofen, Cristina
PY - 2012/11
Y1 - 2012/11
N2 - Background: Neuroanatomical evidence suggests that the human brain has dedicated pathways to rapidly process threatening stimuli. This processing bias for threat was examined using the repetition blindness (RB) paradigm. RB (i.e., failure to report the second instance of an identical stimulus rapidly following the first) has been established for words, objects and faces but not, to date, facial expressions. Methods: 78 (Study 1) and 62 (Study 2) participants identified repeated and different, threatening and non-threatening emotional facial expressions in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams. Results: In Study 1, repeated facial expressions produced more RB than different expressions. RB was attenuated for threatening expressions. In Study 2, attenuation of RB for threatening expressions was replicated. Additionally, semantically related but non-identical threatening expressions reduced RB relative to non-threatening stimuli. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the threat bias is apparent in the temporal processing of facial expressions, and expands the RB paradigm by demonstrating that identical facial expressions are susceptible to the effect.
AB - Background: Neuroanatomical evidence suggests that the human brain has dedicated pathways to rapidly process threatening stimuli. This processing bias for threat was examined using the repetition blindness (RB) paradigm. RB (i.e., failure to report the second instance of an identical stimulus rapidly following the first) has been established for words, objects and faces but not, to date, facial expressions. Methods: 78 (Study 1) and 62 (Study 2) participants identified repeated and different, threatening and non-threatening emotional facial expressions in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams. Results: In Study 1, repeated facial expressions produced more RB than different expressions. RB was attenuated for threatening expressions. In Study 2, attenuation of RB for threatening expressions was replicated. Additionally, semantically related but non-identical threatening expressions reduced RB relative to non-threatening stimuli. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the threat bias is apparent in the temporal processing of facial expressions, and expands the RB paradigm by demonstrating that identical facial expressions are susceptible to the effect.
KW - Bias
KW - Emotion processing
KW - Facial expressions
KW - Preferential processing
KW - Repetition blindness
KW - Threat
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84866294528&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02699931.2011.648173
DO - 10.1080/02699931.2011.648173
M3 - Article
C2 - 22519875
AN - SCOPUS:84866294528
SN - 0269-9931
VL - 26
SP - 1238
EP - 1255
JO - Cognition and Emotion
JF - Cognition and Emotion
IS - 7
ER -