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Sak-Wernicka J. The Effect of Nonverbal Cues on the Interpretation of Utterances by People with Visual Impairments. JOURNAL OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT & BLINDNESS 2014. [DOI: 10.1177/0145482x1410800205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Introduction The purpose of this article is to explore the effect of nonverbal information (gestures and facial expressions) provided in real time on the interpretation of utterances by people with total blindness. Methods The article reports on an exploratory study performed on two groups of participants with visual impairments who were tested on their ability to interpret short dialogues provided as a recording with or without audio description (AD). The AD supplied additional information about gestures and facial expressions performed by speakers in the dialogues. The performance of the visually impaired participants was compared with participants who were sighted. Results There were no significant differences in the interpretation of the dialogues between the two groups of participants. No significant differences were found between the participants with visual impairments who were and were not provided with AD. Discussion The findings lend support for the premise that people with visual impairments are able to make correct assumptions about intentions, feelings, and attitudes of other people on the basis of available information during communication. The results also suggest that the lack of direct access to gestures and facial expressions during communication does not tend to impair the understanding of utterances by people who are blind.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jolanta Sak-Wernicka
- The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Institute of English Studies, Department of Modern English, Al. Raclawickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
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302
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Lee DH, Mirza R, Flanagan JG, Anderson AK. Optical origins of opposing facial expression actions. Psychol Sci 2014; 25:745-52. [PMID: 24463554 DOI: 10.1177/0956797613514451] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Darwin theorized that emotional expressions originated as opposing functional adaptations for the expresser, not as distinct categories of social signals. Given that two thirds of the eye's refractive power comes from the cornea, we examined whether opposing expressive behaviors that widen the eyes (e.g., fear) or narrow the eyes (e.g., disgust) may have served as an optical trade-off, enhancing either sensitivity or acuity, thereby promoting stimulus localization ("where") or stimulus discrimination ("what"), respectively. An optical model based on eye apertures of posed fear and disgust expressions supported this functional trade-off. We then tested the model using standardized optometric measures of sensitivity and acuity. We demonstrated that eye widening enhanced stimulus detection, whereas eye narrowing enhanced discrimination, each at the expense of the other. Opposing expressive actions around the eye may thus reflect origins in an optical principle, shaping visual encoding at its earliest stage-how light is cast onto the retina.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel H Lee
- 1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
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303
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304
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Gilboa-Schechtman E, Shachar-Lavie I. More than a face: a unified theoretical perspective on nonverbal social cue processing in social anxiety. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7:904. [PMID: 24427129 PMCID: PMC3876460 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00904] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2013] [Accepted: 12/10/2013] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Processing of nonverbal social cues (NVSCs) is essential to interpersonal functioning and is particularly relevant to models of social anxiety. This article provides a review of the literature on NVSC processing from the perspective of social rank and affiliation biobehavioral systems (ABSs), based on functional analysis of human sociality. We examine the potential of this framework for integrating cognitive, interpersonal, and evolutionary accounts of social anxiety. We argue that NVSCs are uniquely suited to rapid and effective conveyance of emotional, motivational, and trait information and that various channels are differentially effective in transmitting such information. First, we review studies on perception of NVSCs through face, voice, and body. We begin with studies that utilized information processing or imaging paradigms to assess NVSC perception. This research demonstrated that social anxiety is associated with biased attention to, and interpretation of, emotional facial expressions (EFEs) and emotional prosody. Findings regarding body and posture remain scarce. Next, we review studies on NVSC expression, which pinpointed links between social anxiety and disturbances in eye gaze, facial expressivity, and vocal properties of spontaneous and planned speech. Again, links between social anxiety and posture were understudied. Although cognitive, interpersonal, and evolutionary theories have described different pathways to social anxiety, all three models focus on interrelations among cognition, subjective experience, and social behavior. NVSC processing and production comprise the juncture where these theories intersect. In light of the conceptualizations emerging from the review, we highlight several directions for future research including focus on NVSCs as indexing reactions to changes in belongingness and social rank, the moderating role of gender, and the therapeutic opportunities offered by embodied cognition to treat social anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Gilboa-Schechtman
- Department of Psychology, The Gonda Brain Science Center, Bar-Ilan University Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Iris Shachar-Lavie
- Department of Psychology, The Gonda Brain Science Center, Bar-Ilan University Ramat Gan, Israel
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305
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Kret ME, Roelofs K, Stekelenburg JJ, de Gelder B. Emotional signals from faces, bodies and scenes influence observers' face expressions, fixations and pupil-size. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7:810. [PMID: 24391567 PMCID: PMC3866922 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2013] [Accepted: 11/07/2013] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
We receive emotional signals from different sources, including the face, the whole body, and the natural scene. Previous research has shown the importance of context provided by the whole body and the scene on the recognition of facial expressions. This study measured physiological responses to face-body-scene combinations. Participants freely viewed emotionally congruent and incongruent face-body and body-scene pairs whilst eye fixations, pupil-size, and electromyography (EMG) responses were recorded. Participants attended more to angry and fearful vs. happy or neutral cues, independent of the source and relatively independent from whether the face body and body scene combinations were emotionally congruent or not. Moreover, angry faces combined with angry bodies and angry bodies viewed in aggressive social scenes elicited greatest pupil dilation. Participants' face expressions matched the valence of the stimuli but when face-body compounds were shown, the observed facial expression influenced EMG responses more than the posture. Together, our results show that the perception of emotional signals from faces, bodies and scenes depends on the natural context, but when threatening cues are presented, these threats attract attention, induce arousal, and evoke congruent facial reactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mariska E Kret
- Psychology Department, University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands ; Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Karin Roelofs
- Behavioural Science Institute & Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Jeroen J Stekelenburg
- Psychology Department, Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences Laboratory, Tilburg University Tilburg, Netherlands
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Psychology Department, Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences Laboratory, Tilburg University Tilburg, Netherlands ; Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University Maastricht, Netherlands
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306
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Darwin's Duchenne: eye constriction during infant joy and distress. PLoS One 2013; 8:e80161. [PMID: 24278255 PMCID: PMC3835870 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2012] [Accepted: 10/09/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Darwin proposed that smiles with eye constriction (Duchenne smiles) index strong positive emotion in infants, while cry-faces with eye constriction index strong negative emotion. Research has supported Darwin’s proposal with respect to smiling, but there has been little parallel research on cry-faces (open-mouth expressions with lateral lip stretching). To investigate the possibility that eye constriction indexes the affective intensity of positive and negative emotions, we first conducted the Face-to-Face/Still-Face (FFSF) procedure at 6 months. In the FFSF, three minutes of naturalistic infant-parent play interaction (which elicits more smiles than cry-faces) are followed by two minutes in which the parent holds an unresponsive still-face (which elicits more cry-faces than smiles). Consistent with Darwin’s proposal, eye constriction was associated with stronger smiling and with stronger cry-faces. In addition, the proportion of smiles with eye constriction was higher during the positive-emotion eliciting play episode than during the still-face. In parallel, the proportion of cry-faces with eye constriction was higher during the negative-emotion eliciting still-face than during play. These results are consonant with the hypothesis that eye constriction indexes the affective intensity of both positive and negative facial configurations. A preponderance of eye constriction during cry-faces was observed in a second elicitor of intense negative emotion, vaccination injections, at both 6 and 12 months of age. The results support the existence of a Duchenne distress expression that parallels the more well-known Duchenne smile. This suggests that eye constriction–the Duchenne marker–has a systematic association with early facial expressions of intense negative and positive emotion.
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307
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Lick DJ, Carpinella CM, Preciado MA, Spunt RP, Johnson KL. Reverse-correlating mental representations of sex-typed bodies: the effect of number of trials on image quality. Front Psychol 2013; 4:476. [PMID: 23908637 PMCID: PMC3727110 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00476] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2013] [Accepted: 07/08/2013] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex categorization is a critical process in social perception. While psychologists have long theorized that perceivers have distinct mental representations of men and women that help them to achieve efficient sex categorizations, researchers have only recently begun using reverse-correlation to visualize the content of these mental representations. The present research addresses two issues concerning this relatively new methodological tool. First, previous studies of reverse-correlation have focused almost exclusively on perceivers' mental representations of faces. Our study demonstrates that this technique can also be used to visualize mental representations of sex-typed bodies. Second, most studies of reverse-correlation have employed a relatively large number of trials (1000+) to capture perceivers' mental representations of a given category. Our study demonstrated that, at least for sex-typed representations of bodies, high quality reverse-correlation images can be obtained with as few as 100 trials. Overall, our findings enhance knowledge of reverse-correlation methodology in general and sex categorization in particular, providing new information for researchers interested in using this technique to understand the complex processes underlying social perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- David J Lick
- Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA, USA
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308
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Zieber N, Kangas A, Hock A, Bhatt RS. Infants' perception of emotion from body movements. Child Dev 2013; 85:675-84. [PMID: 23802842 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Adults recognize emotions conveyed by bodies with comparable accuracy to facial emotions. However, no prior study has explored infants' perception of body emotions. In Experiment 1, 6.5-month-olds (n = 32) preferred happy over neutral actions of actors with covered faces in upright but not inverted silent videos. In Experiment 2, infants (n = 32) matched happy and angry videos to corresponding vocalizations when the videos were upright but not when they were inverted. Experiment 3 (n = 16) demonstrated that infants' performance in Experiment 2 was not driven by information from the covered face and head. Thus, young infants are sensitive to emotions conveyed by bodies and match them to affective vocalizations, indicating sophisticated emotion processing capabilities early in life.
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309
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Kumfor F, Irish M, Hodges JR, Piguet O. Discrete Neural Correlates for the Recognition of Negative Emotions: Insights from Frontotemporal Dementia. PLoS One 2013; 8:e67457. [PMID: 23805313 PMCID: PMC3689735 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067457] [Citation(s) in RCA: 130] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2013] [Accepted: 05/17/2013] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Patients with frontotemporal dementia have pervasive changes in emotion recognition and social cognition, yet the neural changes underlying these emotion processing deficits remain unclear. The multimodal system model of emotion proposes that basic emotions are dependent on distinct brain regions, which undergo significant pathological changes in frontotemporal dementia. As such, this syndrome may provide important insight into the impact of neural network degeneration upon the innate ability to recognise emotions. This study used voxel-based morphometry to identify discrete neural correlates involved in the recognition of basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise and happiness) in frontotemporal dementia. Forty frontotemporal dementia patients (18 behavioural-variant, 11 semantic dementia, 11 progressive nonfluent aphasia) and 27 healthy controls were tested on two facial emotion recognition tasks: The Ekman 60 and Ekman Caricatures. Although each frontotemporal dementia group showed impaired recognition of negative emotions, distinct associations between emotion-specific task performance and changes in grey matter intensity emerged. Fear recognition was associated with the right amygdala; disgust recognition with the left insula; anger recognition with the left middle and superior temporal gyrus; and sadness recognition with the left subcallosal cingulate, indicating that discrete neural substrates are necessary for emotion recognition in frontotemporal dementia. The erosion of emotion-specific neural networks in neurodegenerative disorders may produce distinct profiles of performance that are relevant to understanding the neurobiological basis of emotion processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiona Kumfor
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia
- School of Medical Sciences, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Muireann Irish
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- School of Psychology, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - John R. Hodges
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia
- School of Medical Sciences, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
| | - Olivier Piguet
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia
- School of Medical Sciences, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- * E-mail:
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310
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Interpretation of Emotional Body Language Displayed by a Humanoid Robot: A Case Study with Children. Int J Soc Robot 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s12369-013-0193-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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311
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Tan CSS, Schöning J, Barnes JS, Luyten K, Coninx K. Bro-cam: Improving Game Experience with Empathic Feedback Using Posture Tracking. PERSUASIVE TECHNOLOGY 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-37157-8_27] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
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