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Bretl BL. Neural and Linguistic Considerations for Assessing Moral Intuitions Using Text-Based Stimuli. THE JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 155:90-114. [PMID: 33180682 DOI: 10.1080/00223980.2020.1832034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022] Open
Abstract
This review takes a focused look at neural and linguistic considerations for assessing moral intuitions using text-based stimuli. Relevant neural correlates of moral salience, emotional processing, moral emotions (shame and guilt), semantic processing, implicit stereotype activation (e.g., gender, age, and race stereotypes), and functional brain network development (the default mode network and salience network) are considered insofar as they relate to unique considerations for text-based instruments. What emerge are not only key considerations for researchers assessing moral intuitions using text-based stimuli but also considerations for the study of moral psychology more broadly, especially in developmental and educational contexts.
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Convergent evidence for a theory of rapid, automatic, and accurate sex ratio tracking. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2020; 210:103161. [PMID: 32847751 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103161] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2020] [Revised: 06/15/2020] [Accepted: 08/06/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
It is presumed that people track the sex ratios in their environment (the number of males relative to number of females) in order to adaptively adjust their decisions and behaviors, but this actual tracking ability has not been established. The relevance of sex ratio information, drawn from evolutionary biology and studies of human relationship decision making, is integrated here with memory research (on frequency encoding), perception research (on ensemble coding), and neuroscience research. A series of four experiments provide empirical results to help fill research gaps and facilitate this theoretical integration. In particular, these studies connect details from memory research on relatively automatic frequency encoding of both items and categories, perception research on summary statistics from ensemble coding, and theoretical ideas about the function of these abilities (specifically applied to human sex ratios based on faces) from social and evolutionary approaches. Collectively this research demonstrates an evolved psychological mechanism for functional, fast, and relatively automatic human abilities to track experienced sex ratios in the social world. This sex ratio information is theorized to underpin documented facultative adjustments in relationship dynamics as well as perceptions of social group characteristics. This integrative approach highlights how the coding, memory, and judgments about population sex ratios can both account for a number of existing findings and point towards key further research.
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Rekow D, Baudouin JY, Rossion B, Leleu A. An ecological measure of rapid and automatic face-sex categorization. Cortex 2020; 127:150-161. [PMID: 32200287 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.02.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2019] [Revised: 10/29/2019] [Accepted: 02/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Sex categorization is essential for mate choice and social interactions in many animal species. In humans, sex categorization is readily performed from the face. However, clear neural markers of face-sex categorization, i.e., common responses to widely variable individuals from one sex, have not been identified so far in humans. To isolate a direct signature of rapid and automatic face-sex categorization generalized across a wide range of variable exemplars, we recorded scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) from 32 participants (16 females) while they were exposed to variable natural face images from one sex alternating at a rapid rate of 6 Hz (i.e., 6 images per second). Images from the other sex were inserted every 6th stimulus (i.e., at a 1-Hz rate). A robust categorization response to both sex contrasts emerged at 1 Hz and harmonics in the EEG frequency spectrum over the occipito-temporal cortex of most participants. The response was larger for female faces presented among male faces than the reverse, suggesting that the two sex categories are not equally homogenous. This asymmetrical response pattern disappeared for upside-down faces, ruling out the contribution of low-level physical variability across images. Overall, these observations demonstrate that sex categorization occurs automatically after a single glance at natural face images and can be objectively isolated and quantified in the human brain within a few minutes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diane Rekow
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, Inrae, AgroSup Dijon, Dijon, France.
| | - Jean-Yves Baudouin
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, Inrae, AgroSup Dijon, Dijon, France; Laboratoire "Développement, Individu, Processus, Handicap, Éducation" (DIPHE), Département Psychologie du Développement, de l'Éducation et des Vulnérabilités (PsyDÉV), Institut de Psychologie, Université de Lyon (Lumière Lyon 2), Bron, France.
| | - Bruno Rossion
- Université de Lorraine, CNRS, CRAN - UMR 7039, Nancy, France; Université de Lorraine, CHRU-Nancy, Service de Neurologie, Nancy, France.
| | - Arnaud Leleu
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Lab, Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CNRS, Inrae, AgroSup Dijon, Dijon, France.
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Dobs K, Isik L, Pantazis D, Kanwisher N. How face perception unfolds over time. Nat Commun 2019; 10:1258. [PMID: 30890707 PMCID: PMC6425020 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09239-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2018] [Accepted: 02/24/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Within a fraction of a second of viewing a face, we have already determined its gender, age and identity. A full understanding of this remarkable feat will require a characterization of the computational steps it entails, along with the representations extracted at each. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the time course of neural responses to faces, thereby addressing two fundamental questions about how face processing unfolds over time. First, using representational similarity analysis, we found that facial gender and age information emerged before identity information, suggesting a coarse-to-fine processing of face dimensions. Second, identity and gender representations of familiar faces were enhanced very early on, suggesting that the behavioral benefit for familiar faces results from tuning of early feed-forward processing mechanisms. These findings start to reveal the time course of face processing in humans, and provide powerful new constraints on computational theories of face perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Dobs
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
- McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
- The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
| | - Leyla Isik
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Dimitrios Pantazis
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
| | - Nancy Kanwisher
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- McGovern Institute of Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
- The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
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Zamuner E, Oxner M, Hayward WG. Perception and imagery of faces generate similar gender aftereffects. VISUAL COGNITION 2016. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2016.1235066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
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Henson RN. Repetition suppression to faces in the fusiform face area: A personal and dynamic journey. Cortex 2016; 80:174-84. [PMID: 26615518 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 45] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2015] [Revised: 09/21/2015] [Accepted: 09/30/2015] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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Gaetano J, van der Zwan R, Oxner M, Hayward WG, Doring N, Blair D, Brooks A. Converging Evidence of Ubiquitous Male Bias in Human Sex Perception. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0148623. [PMID: 26859570 PMCID: PMC4747496 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2015] [Accepted: 12/15/2015] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Visually judging the sex of another can be achieved easily in most social encounters. When the signals that inform such judgements are weak (e.g. outdoors at night), observers tend to expect the presence of males-an expectation that may facilitate survival-critical decisions under uncertainty. The present aim was to examine whether this male bias depends on expertise. To that end, Caucasian and Asian observers targeted female and male hand images that were either the same or different to the observers' race (i.e. long term experience was varied) while concurrently, the proportion of targets changed across presentation blocks (i.e. short term experience change). It was thus found that: (i) observers of own-race stimuli were more likely to report the presence of males and absence of females, however (ii) observers of other-race stimuli--while still tending to accept stimuli as male--were not prone to rejecting female cues. Finally, (iii) male-biased measures did not track the relative frequency of targets or lures, disputing the notion that male bias derives from prior expectation about the number of male exemplars in a set. Findings are discussed in concert with the pan-stimulus model of human sex perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Gaetano
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Rick van der Zwan
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Matthew Oxner
- Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
| | - William G. Hayward
- Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
| | - Natalie Doring
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Duncan Blair
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Anna Brooks
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
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Yokoyama T, Noguchi Y, Tachibana R, Mukaida S, Kita S. A critical role of holistic processing in face gender perception. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:477. [PMID: 25018727 PMCID: PMC4071975 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00477] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2014] [Accepted: 06/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Whether face gender perception is processed by encoding holistic (whole) or featural (parts) information is a controversial issue. Although neuroimaging studies have identified brain regions related to face gender perception, the temporal dynamics of this process remain under debate. Here, we identified the mechanism and temporal dynamics of face gender perception. We used stereoscopic depth manipulation to create two conditions: the front and behind condition. In the front condition, facial patches were presented stereoscopically in front of the occluder and participants perceived them as disjoint parts (featural cues). In the behind condition, facial patches were presented stereoscopically behind the occluder and were amodally completed and unified in a coherent face (holistic cues). We performed three behavioral experiments and one electroencephalography experiment, and compared the results of the front and behind conditions. We found faster reaction times (RTs) in the behind condition compared with the front, and observed priming effects and aftereffects only in the behind condition. Moreover, the EEG experiment revealed that face gender perception is processed in the relatively late phase of visual recognition (200-285 ms). Our results indicate that holistic information is critical for face gender perception, and that this process occurs with a relatively late latency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takemasa Yokoyama
- Department of Psychology, Kobe University Kobe, Japan ; Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University Nagoya, Japan ; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Tokyo, Japan
| | | | | | - Shigeru Mukaida
- Faculty of Information Media, Hokkaido Information University Ebetsu, Japan
| | - Shinichi Kita
- Department of Psychology, Kobe University Kobe, Japan
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Gaetano J, van der Zwan R, Blair D, Brooks A. Hands as sex cues: sensitivity measures, male bias measures, and implications for sex perception mechanisms. PLoS One 2014; 9:e91032. [PMID: 24603615 PMCID: PMC3946328 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2013] [Accepted: 02/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex perceptions, or more particularly, sex discriminations and sex categorisations, are high-value social behaviours. They mediate almost all inter-personal interactions. The two experiments reported here had the aim of exploring some of the basic characteristics of the processes giving rise to sex perceptions. Experiment 1 confirmed that human hands can be used as a cue to an individual's sex even when colour and texture cues are removed and presentations are brief. Experiment 1 also showed that when hands are sexually ambiguous observers tend to classify them as male more often than female. Experiment 2 showed that "male bias" arises not from sensitivity differences but from differences in response biases. Observers are conservative in their judgements of targets as female but liberal in their judgements of targets as male. These data, combined with earlier reports, suggest the existence of a sex-perception space that is cue-invariant.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Gaetano
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Rick van der Zwan
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Duncan Blair
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
| | - Anna Brooks
- Cognitive Neuroscience Research Cluster, Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour, Australia
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Kaiser D, Walther C, Schweinberger SR, Kovács G. Dissociating the neural bases of repetition-priming and adaptation in the human brain for faces. J Neurophysiol 2013; 110:2727-38. [DOI: 10.1152/jn.00277.2013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The repetition of a given stimulus leads to the attenuation of the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal compared with unrepeated stimuli, a phenomenon called fMRI adaptation or repetition suppression (RS). Previous studies have related RS of the fMRI signal behaviorally both to improved performance for the repeated stimulus (priming) and to shifts of perception away from the first stimulus (adaptation-related aftereffects). Here we used identical task (sex discrimination), trial structure [ stimulus 1 (S1): 3,000 ms, interstimulus interval: 600 ms, stimulus 2 (S2): 300 ms], and S2 stimuli (androgynous faces) to test how RS of the face-specific areas of the occipito-temporal cortex relates to priming and aftereffects. By varying S1, we could induce priming (significantly faster reaction times when S1 and S2 were identical compared with different images) as well as sex-specific aftereffect [an increased ratio of male responses if S1 was a female face compared with ambiguous faces or to Fourier-randomized noise (FOU) images]. Presenting any face as S1 led to significant RS of the blood oxygen level-dependent signal in the fusiform and occipital face areas as well as in the lateral occipital cortex of both hemispheres compared with FOU, reflecting stimulus category-specific encoding. Additionally, while sex-specific adaptation effects were only observed in occipital face areas, primed trials led to a signal reduction in both face-selective regions. Altogether, these results suggest the differential neural mechanisms of adaptation and repetition priming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Kaiser
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Christian Walther
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; and
| | - Stefan R. Schweinberger
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; and
| | - Gyula Kovács
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany; and
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
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