1
|
Kim KK, Fang W, Liu AY, Panesar D, Xiao NG. Altered development of face recognition among infants born amid the COVID-19 pandemic. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 244:105942. [PMID: 38703752 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/06/2024]
Abstract
To effectively contain the spread of COVID-19, public health agencies mandated special regulations. Although they protected us from COVID-19, these restrictions have inevitably changed the environment around us. It remains unclear how these changes may have affected early cognitive development among infants born during the pandemic. Thus, this study examined how the COVID-19 restrictions have affected infants' face recognition ability, a hallmark of their cognitive capacities. Specifically, we used the familiarization and visual pair comparison paradigm to examine face recognition performance among infants aged 6 to 14 months amid the second wave of the pandemic (February to July 2021). Experiment 1 investigated the recognition of unmasked faces and found that only younger infants, but not older infants, recognized faces by showing a novelty preference. Experiment 2 examined the recognition of faces wearing masks and found that only older infants, but not younger ones, recognized faces by exhibiting a familiarity preference. These results suggest that with limited interactions during the pandemic, infants could have developed an overly specialized face processing ability that failed to recognize the faces of strangers. Moreover, infants could have obtained more information on masked faces during the pandemic and adapted to the current situation. In Expreiment 3, we further confirmed the restriction on infants' interpersonal experiences with a survey conducted both before and during the pandemic. Overall, these findings demonstrated how the pandemic altered early perceptual development and further confirmed that interpersonal experiences during infancy are critical in their cognitive development.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kate Kyuri Kim
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - Wei Fang
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - Anna Y Liu
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8, Canada
| | - Darshan Panesar
- Applied Psychology and Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada
| | - Naiqi G Xiao
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Schnitzler T, Korn C, C Herpertz S, Fuchs T. Emotion recognition in autism spectrum condition during the COVID-19 pandemic. AUTISM : THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 2024; 28:1690-1702. [PMID: 37882152 DOI: 10.1177/13623613231203306] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2023]
Abstract
LAY ABSTRACT In the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing face masks became mandatory to prevent the spread of the virus. However, they restrict the ability to recognize emotions to the upper part of the face. Since individuals with autism spectrum condition often tend to look at the lower half of the face, they may be particularly restricted in emotion recognition by people wearing masks, since they are now forced to look at the upper half of the face. The current study compared the recognition of facially expressed emotions between individuals with and without autism spectrum condition. Each photo was shown in three types, once uncovered, once with face mask, and once with sunglasses. Our results revealed a reduction in accuracy of individuals with autism spectrum condition at recognizing emotions in all three stimulus types and exhibited more difficulties distinguishing anger, fear, pride, and embarrassment. During the emotion recognition task, there was no difference in which facial areas the groups looked at. We did not find evidence that the disadvantages of individuals with autism spectrum condition in emotion recognition were due to looking at different areas of the face.
Collapse
|
3
|
Wang W, Li Z, Lin X, Sun YHP, Wang Z, Wang Y. Influence of protective clothing and masks on facial trustworthiness in an investment game: insights from a Chinese population study. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2024; 9:36. [PMID: 38856867 PMCID: PMC11164842 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-024-00565-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2023] [Accepted: 06/04/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Facial features are important sources of information about perceived trustworthiness. Masks and protective clothing diminish the visibility of facial cues by either partially concealing the mouth and nose or covering the entire face. During the pandemic, the use of personal protective equipment affected and redefined who trusts whom in society. This study used the classical investment game of interpersonal trust with Chinese participants to explore the impact of occlusion on interpersonal trust. Faces with moderate initial trustworthiness were occluded by a mask or protective clothing in Experiment 1 and were digitally occluded by a square in Experiment 2, and faces with three levels of initial trustworthiness were occluded by a mask in Experiment 3. Results showed that both undergraduates (Experiment 1a) and non-student adults (Experiment 1b) perceived the faces with protective clothing as more trustworthy than faces wearing standard masks and faces not wearing masks. Faces with the top halves showing were perceived as trustworthy as full faces, while faces with the bottom halves showing were perceived as less trustworthy. The effect of masks is weak and complex. Masks reduced participants' trust in faces with high initial trustworthiness, had no effect on faces with low and moderate initial trustworthiness, and only slightly increased the trust of undergraduates in faces with moderate initial trustworthiness. Our findings indicate that the lack of information caused by occlusion and the social significance associated with occlusion collectively affect people's trust behavior in Chinese society. We believe the findings of this study will be useful in elucidating the effects of personal protective equipment usage on perceptions of trustworthiness.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Weiping Wang
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, , Beijing, 100101, China.
- Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Zhifan Li
- Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Zhejiang, China
| | - Xin Lin
- Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Zhejiang, China
| | - Yu-Hao P Sun
- Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Zhejiang, China
| | - Zhe Wang
- Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Zhejiang, China
| | - Yong Wang
- Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, , Beijing, 100101, China.
- The Research Center for Psychological Education, University of International Relations, Beijing, China.
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Pinto R, Albuquerque PB. The impact of the use of masks on trait judgments and face recognition. Mem Cognit 2024; 52:725-734. [PMID: 38012515 PMCID: PMC11111489 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-023-01495-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Although effective in reducing virus transmission, face masks might compromise face recognition and trait judgments. With this study, we aimed to observe the influence of masks on face recognition and trait judgments-more specifically, in trustworthiness, dominance, and distinctiveness judgments. Also, we wanted to observe the possible influence of trait judgments on facial recognition for masked and unmasked faces, which has never been done before. For that, we conducted an online study where 140 participants observed and made trait judgments of masked and unmasked faces in a within-subjects design. After a distractive task, participants performed a recognition memory test. As expected, we observed a better recognition of faces shown without a mask during the study phase, which allowed the holistic processing of the faces. The worst performance was found for faces encoded with a mask but tested without it, occurring simultaneity disruption in holistic face processing and the violation of the encoding specificity principle. Regarding the trait judgments, unmasked faces were considered more distinctive, and masked faces were considered more trustworthy. More interestingly, we can conclude that facial distinctiveness predicts face recognition, regardless of mask use. In contrast, dominance judgments only predicted face recognition when faces were presented without a mask. When faces were exposed with masks, trustworthiness overrides dominance, becoming more critical to recognizing faces. We can interpret these results from an evolutionary perspective.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Raquel Pinto
- School of Psychology, University of Minho (Portugal), Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.
| | - Pedro B Albuquerque
- School of Psychology, University of Minho (Portugal), Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Liang Y, Peng Q, Yang Y, Wang J, Liu T. Does wearing a mask promote consumer uniqueness seeking? Front Psychol 2024; 15:1371820. [PMID: 38689727 PMCID: PMC11058847 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1371820] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 04/03/2024] [Indexed: 05/02/2024] Open
Abstract
As a motivational factor, uniqueness drives individuals to seek and choose unique goods or experiences. The act of wearing masks obscures individuals' facial features and influences their desire for uniqueness. This study aims to explore how wearing masks promotes individual uniqueness- seeking behavior. Three experiments were performed using various product categories (Starbucks coffee cups, sweatshirts, suitcases, and baseball caps) and sample types (college student and adult samples). Experiment results show that wearing masks obscures individuals' facial features and weakens their self- perceived uniqueness, thereby increasing their willingness to actively purchase unique products. This study is the first to examine the effect of wearing masks on individuals' choice of unique products. Practically, the results suggest that customized products can compensate for the lack of self-perceived uniqueness brought about by facial occlusion, thus providing valuable guidance for companies and retailers that offer customized services in formulating and designing marketing strategies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yiyuan Liang
- Center for Global Affairs, School of Professional Studies, New York University, New York, NY, United States
| | - Qiushui Peng
- School of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuqing Yang
- School of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
| | - Jiayu Wang
- School of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
| | - Tao Liu
- School of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Ingram GPD, Chuquichambi EG, Jimenez-Leal W, Rosa AOL. In masks we trust: explicit and implicit reactions to masked faces vary by political orientation. BMC Psychol 2024; 12:68. [PMID: 38347648 PMCID: PMC10863087 DOI: 10.1186/s40359-024-01556-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2024] [Indexed: 02/15/2024] Open
Abstract
Previous studies in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that wearing a medical-style mask affects whether a stranger's face is judged as more trustworthy, socially desirable, or likely to be ill. However, given political controversies around mask use, these effects might vary by political orientation. In a pre-registered online experiment, we measured evaluations of trustworthiness, social desirability and perceived illness in masked and unmasked faces by 1241 British and US participants. We included questions on political orientation, along with the implicit online-VAAST approach/avoid task to test reaction times to masked/unmasked faces. There was a medium-sized effect of masks on trustworthiness and a significant interaction with political orientation, in that conservatives found masked faces less trustworthy than did liberals. Participants were quicker to approach masked than unmasked faces, but conservatives were relatively slower than liberals. The effects on trustworthiness suggest that differential moralization of novel social norms can affect how their adherents are evaluated in terms of their suitability for social interactions. Furthermore, the congruence between implicit and explicit methods implies that such differences can have deep-seated effects on reactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Gordon P D Ingram
- Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de los Andes, Carrera 1 # 18A-12, 111711, Bogotá, Colombia.
| | - Erick G Chuquichambi
- Human Cognition and Evolution (EvoCog) Research Group, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain
| | | | | |
Collapse
|
7
|
Ritchie KL, Carragher DJ, Davis JP, Read K, Jenkins RE, Noyes E, Gray KLH, Hancock PJB. Face masks and fake masks: the effect of real and superimposed masks on face matching with super-recognisers, typical observers, and algorithms. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2024; 9:5. [PMID: 38302820 PMCID: PMC10834892 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-024-00532-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/18/2024] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Mask wearing has been required in various settings since the outbreak of COVID-19, and research has shown that identity judgements are difficult for faces wearing masks. To date, however, the majority of experiments on face identification with masked faces tested humans and computer algorithms using images with superimposed masks rather than images of people wearing real face coverings. In three experiments we test humans (control participants and super-recognisers) and algorithms with images showing different types of face coverings. In all experiments we tested matching concealed or unconcealed faces to an unconcealed reference image, and we found a consistent decrease in face matching accuracy with masked compared to unconcealed faces. In Experiment 1, typical human observers were most accurate at face matching with unconcealed images, and poorer for three different types of superimposed mask conditions. In Experiment 2, we tested both typical observers and super-recognisers with superimposed and real face masks, and found that performance was poorer for real compared to superimposed masks. The same pattern was observed in Experiment 3 with algorithms. Our results highlight the importance of testing both humans and algorithms with real face masks, as using only superimposed masks may underestimate their detrimental effect on face identification.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kay L Ritchie
- School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK.
| | - Daniel J Carragher
- Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
- School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Josh P Davis
- School of Human Sciences, Institute of Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich, London, UK
| | - Katie Read
- School of Human Sciences, Institute of Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich, London, UK
| | - Ryan E Jenkins
- School of Human Sciences, Institute of Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich, London, UK
| | - Eilidh Noyes
- School of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
| | - Katie L H Gray
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK
| | - Peter J B Hancock
- Psychology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Hysenaj A, Leclère M, Tahirbegolli B, Kuqi D, Isufi A, Prekazi L, Shemsedini N, Maljichi D, Meha R. Accuracy and Speed of Emotion Recognition With Face Masks. EUROPES JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2024; 20:16-24. [PMID: 38487600 PMCID: PMC10936662 DOI: 10.5964/ejop.11789] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2024]
Abstract
Wearing face masks is one of the important actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among people around the world. Nevertheless, social interaction is limited via masks, and this impacts the accuracy and speed of emotional perception. In the present study, we assess the impact of mask-wearing on the accuracy and speed of emotion recognition. Fifty people (female n = 39, male n = 11) aged 19-28 participated in the study (M = 21.1 years). We used frontal photos of a Kosova woman who belonged to the same participants' age group, with a grey background. Twelve different pictures were used that showed the emotional states of fear, joy, sadness, anger, neutrality, and disgust, in masked and unmasked conditions. The experiment was conducted in a controlled laboratory setting. Participants were faster for identifying emotions like joy (1.507 ms) and neutral (1.971 ms). The participants were more accurate (emotions identification) in unmasked faces (M = 85.7%) than in masked faces (M = 73.8%), F(1,98) = 20.73, MSE = 1027.66, p ≤ .001, partial η² = 0.17. Masks make confusion and reduce the accuracy and speediness of emotional detection. This may have a notable impact on social interactions among peoples.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Arben Hysenaj
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Health Psychology, University of Bamberg, Germany
| | - Mariel Leclère
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Bernard Tahirbegolli
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
- National Sports Medicine Center, Prishtine, Kosovo
| | - Dorentina Kuqi
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
| | - Albane Isufi
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
| | - Lulejete Prekazi
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
| | - Nevzat Shemsedini
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
| | - Driton Maljichi
- Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, North Macedonia
| | - Rina Meha
- Faculty of Social and Psychological Sciences, Heimerer College, Prishtina, Kosovo
- Institute of Sports and Preventive Medicine, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Yuan RK, Kim YA, Cain SW, Münch MY, Ronda JM, Wang W, Czeisler CA, Duffy JF. Circadian- and wake-dependent influences on face-name memory in healthy men and women over 3weeks of chronic sleep restriction. Sleep Health 2024; 10:S84-S88. [PMID: 37783575 PMCID: PMC10980596 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2023.08.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2023] [Revised: 08/15/2023] [Accepted: 08/17/2023] [Indexed: 10/04/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Facial recognition is one of the key functions of the human brain, and linking a face to a name is critical in many social and occupational settings. This study assessed circadian- and wake-dependent effects on face-name recognition in healthy adults. METHODS Thirteen healthy adults (20-70years; 7 F) were studied in a 39-day inpatient protocol that included 3weeks of 28 hours forced desynchrony with sleep restriction (6.5:21.5 hours sleep:wake). Starting 3 hours after scheduled wake, 6 novel face-name pairs were presented every 4 waking hours; recognition was tested 2 hours later. Performance data were averaged across ∼4 hours circadian phase or time-awake bins. RESULTS Face-name recognition deteriorated with increased time awake (p < .0001) and exhibited significant circadian variation (p < .0001), with worst performance shortly after the core temperature nadir. There was a significant interaction between sex and circadian phase (p = .0177), with women performing significantly better than men at all circadian phases except 60° and 120°. Women exhibited a significantly higher amplitude than men during the third week of forced desynchrony (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS Like many other aspects of neurobehavioral performance, recalling face-name associations is impacted by both duration of time awake and circadian phase. These results have implications for face recognition testing in medical contexts, such as in testing for dementia, because performance may be impacted by sleep deficiency and the time of testing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Robin K Yuan
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
| | | | - Sean W Cain
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Mirjam Y Münch
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Joseph M Ronda
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Wei Wang
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Charles A Czeisler
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Jeanne F Duffy
- Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Departments of Medicine and Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Rodriguez AM, Festini SB. Face masks degrade our ability to remember face-name associations more than predicted by judgments of learning. Memory 2024; 32:143-155. [PMID: 38166650 DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2023.2299361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 12/21/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024]
Abstract
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks became required attire. Face masks obstruct the bottom portion of faces, restricting face processing. The present study examined the influence face masks have on memory predictions and memory performance for new face-name associations. Participants studied face-name pairs presented for 8 s (Experiment 1) or 10 s (Experiment 2). Half of the face-name pairs included a face mask obstructing the nose and mouth of the pictured face, counterbalanced across participants. Participants provided item-by-item judgements of learning (JOLs) and completed subsequent cued recall and associative recognition memory tests. Both experiments demonstrated that face masks impaired memory for newly-learned names, however, the magnitude of the mask impact was under-predicted by JOLs. The presence of a face mask negatively influenced memory performance to a greater degree than participants' JOLs predicted. Results have implications for name learning during pandemics, as well as in settings where face masks are common (e.g., medical field).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Sara B Festini
- Department of Psychology, University of Tampa, Tampa, USA
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Tiewald C, Seibel A, Schienle A. A positive side effect of wearing face coverings for socially anxious females: Findings from a speech task. Heliyon 2024; 10:e23733. [PMID: 38187227 PMCID: PMC10767500 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Revised: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Wearing face masks has become more common due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Until now, it has not been investigated whether socially anxious individuals can reduce their acute anxiety symptoms by wearing face masks during a speech task. Method Fifty-nine socially anxious females were asked to prepare and give an oral presentation. Participants were randomly allocated either to a group that was asked to wear a face mask during the task, or to a group that was not asked to wear a face mask during the task. Dependent variables included physiological parameters (systolic/diastolic blood pressure, heart rate) and self-reports (valence and arousal at baseline, as well as directly before and after the presentation). Results The analyses showed that the group without face masks had a higher systolic blood pressure than the group with face masks, directly before as well as after the presentation. The two groups did not differ in the other measures. Conclusion Wearing face masks has a small stress-reducing effect on socially anxious females.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carina Tiewald
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Arved Seibel
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | - Anne Schienle
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Diekhof EK, Deinert L, Keller JK, Degner J. The COVID-19 pandemic and changes in social behavior: Protective face masks reduce deliberate social distancing preferences while leaving automatic avoidance behavior unaffected. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2024; 9:2. [PMID: 38185759 PMCID: PMC10772029 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-023-00528-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Protective face masks were one of the central measures to counteract viral transmission in the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior research indicates that face masks impact various aspects of social cognition, such as emotion recognition and social evaluation. Whether protective masks also influence social avoidance behavior is less clear. Our project assessed direct and indirect measures of social avoidance tendencies towards masked and unmasked faces in two experiments with 311 participants during the first half of 2021. Two interventions were used in half of the participants from each sample (Experiment 1: protective face masks; Experiment 2: a disease prime video) to decrease or increase the salience of the immediate contagion threat. In the direct social avoidance measure, which asked for the deliberate decision to approach or avoid a person in a hypothetical social encounter, participants showed an increased willingness to approach masked as opposed to unmasked faces across experiments. This effect was further related to interindividual differences in pandemic threat perception in both samples. In the indirect measure, which assessed automatic social approach and avoidance tendencies, we neither observed an approach advantage towards masked faces nor an avoidance advantage for unmasked faces. Thus, while the absence of protective face masks may have led to increased deliberate social avoidance during the pandemic, no such effect was observed on automatic regulation of behavior, thus indicating the relative robustness of this latter behavior against changes in superordinate social norms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Esther K Diekhof
- Department of Biology, Neuroendocrinology and Human Biology Unit, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Animal Cell and Systems Biology, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Laura Deinert
- Department of Biology, Neuroendocrinology and Human Biology Unit, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Animal Cell and Systems Biology, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Judith K Keller
- Department of Biology, Neuroendocrinology and Human Biology Unit, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Animal Cell and Systems Biology, Universität Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3, 20146, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Juliane Degner
- Department of Psychology, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Estudillo AJ, Wong HK. The role of inversion and face masks on simultaneous and delayed face matching tasks. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0295407. [PMID: 38166082 PMCID: PMC10760855 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295407] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Although it is generally accepted that face recognition relies on holistic processing, it has been suggested that the simultaneous face matching task may depend on a more analytical or featural processing approach. However, empirical evidence supporting this claim is limited. In two experiments, we further explored the role of holistic and featural processing on simultaneous face matching by manipulating holistic processing through inversion and presenting faces with or without face masks. The results from Experiment 1 revealed that both inversion and face masks impaired matching performance. However, while the inversion effect was evident in both full-view and masked faces, the mask effect was only found in upright, but not inverted, faces. These results were replicated in Experiment 2 but, the inversion and mask effects were stronger in delayed face matching than in simultaneous face matching. Our findings suggest that simultaneous face matching relies on holistic processing, but to a smaller extent compared to higher memory-demanding identification tasks.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro J. Estudillo
- Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom
- University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia
| | - Hoo Keat Wong
- University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Thomas PJN, Caharel S. Do masks cover more than just a face? A study on how facemasks affect the perception of emotional expressions according to their degree of intensity. Perception 2024; 53:3-16. [PMID: 37709269 DOI: 10.1177/03010066231201230] [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: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
Emotional facial expressions convey crucial information in nonverbal communication and serve as a mediator in face-to-face relationships. Their recognition would rely on specific facial traits depending on the perceived emotion. During the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing a facemask has thus disrupted the human ability to read emotions from faces. Yet, these effects are usually assessed across studies from faces expressing stereotypical and exaggerated emotions, which is far removed from real-life conditions. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of facemasks through an emotion categorization task using morphs ranging from a neutral face and an expressive face (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness) (from 0% neutral to 100% expressive in 20% steps). Our results revealed a strong impact of facemasks on the recognition of expressions of disgust, happiness, and sadness, resulting in a decrease in performance and an increase in misinterpretations, both for low and high levels of intensity. In contrast, the recognition of anger and fear, as well as neutral expression, was found to be less impacted by mask-wearing. Future studies should address this issue from a more ecological point of view with the aim of taking concrete adaptive measures in the context of daily interactions.
Collapse
|
15
|
Lobmaier JS, Knoch D. Face coverings increase apparent honesty and cooperativeness. Sci Rep 2023; 13:22327. [PMID: 38102181 PMCID: PMC10724122 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49127-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
People readily make inferences about trait-like characteristics of another person's face. Since the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, the widespread use of hygienic face masks has led to large proportions of the face being covered. We investigated the effect of face masks on the inference of prosocially relevant characteristics, namely cooperativeness and honesty. Portraits of participants of previous studies from which we knew their "true" prosocial tendencies served as stimuli. These facial stimuli were presented once with and once without a hygienic face mask to 60 naïve participants who rated the faces for cooperativeness and honesty. Results revealed that wearing face masks made people generally appear more cooperative and more honest than without a mask, but that these ratings were unrelated to the true prosocial tendencies of these people. Together, these findings have important implications for social interactions, particularly in contexts where nonverbal communication is essential, such as in healthcare settings, job interviews, and social gatherings.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Janek S Lobmaier
- Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
| | - Daria Knoch
- Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Mulder MJ, Prummer F, Terburg D, Kenemans JL. Drift-diffusion modeling reveals that masked faces are preconceived as unfriendly. Sci Rep 2023; 13:16982. [PMID: 37813970 PMCID: PMC10562405 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-44162-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 10/11/2023] Open
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of face masks has become a daily routine. Studies have shown that face masks increase the ambiguity of facial expressions which not only affects (the development of) emotion recognition, but also interferes with social interaction and judgement. To disambiguate facial expressions, we rely on perceptual (stimulus-driven) as well as preconceptual (top-down) processes. However, it is unknown which of these two mechanisms accounts for the misinterpretation of masked expressions. To investigate this, we asked participants (N = 136) to decide whether ambiguous (morphed) facial expressions, with or without a mask, were perceived as friendly or unfriendly. To test for the independent effects of perceptual and preconceptual biases we fitted a drift-diffusion model (DDM) to the behavioral data of each participant. Results show that face masks induce a clear loss of information leading to a slight perceptual bias towards friendly choices, but also a clear preconceptual bias towards unfriendly choices for masked faces. These results suggest that, although face masks can increase the perceptual friendliness of faces, people have the prior preconception to interpret masked faces as unfriendly.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Martijn J Mulder
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Franziska Prummer
- School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
| | - David Terburg
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - J Leon Kenemans
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Williams EH, Thompson NM, McCray G, Chakrabarti B. Autistic traits modulate the influence of face masks on gaze perception. Sci Rep 2023; 13:14921. [PMID: 37691074 PMCID: PMC10493222 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41900-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Accepted: 08/31/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Detecting when others are looking at us is a crucial social skill. Accordingly, a range of gaze angles is perceived as self-directed; this is termed the "cone of direct gaze" (CoDG). Multiple cues, such as nose and head orientation, are integrated during gaze perception. Thus, occluding the lower portion of the face, such as with face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, may influence how gaze is perceived. Individual differences in the prioritisation of eye-region and non-eye-region cues may modulate the influence of face masks on gaze perception. Autistic individuals, who may be more reliant on non-eye-region directional cues during gaze perception, might be differentially affected by face masks. In the present study, we compared the CoDG when viewing masked and unmasked faces (N = 157) and measured self-reported autistic traits. The CoDG was wider for masked compared to unmasked faces, suggesting that reduced reliability of lower face cues increases the range of gaze angles perceived as self-directed. Additionally, autistic traits positively predicted the magnitude of CoDG difference between masked and unmasked faces. This study provides crucial insights into the effect of face masks on gaze perception, and how they may affect autistic individuals to a greater extent.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elin H Williams
- Centre for Autism, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6DZ, UK.
| | - Nicholas M Thompson
- Centre for Autism, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6DZ, UK
- Faculty of Health, Education and Society, University of Northampton, Northampton, UK
| | | | - Bhismadev Chakrabarti
- Centre for Autism, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6DZ, UK
- India Autism Centre, Kolkata, India
- Department of Psychology, Ashoka University, Sonipat, India
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Cho J, Im HY, Yoon YJ, Joo SJ, Chong SC. The effect of masks on the emotion perception of a facial crowd. Sci Rep 2023; 13:14274. [PMID: 37653061 PMCID: PMC10471755 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-41366-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2023] [Accepted: 08/25/2023] [Indexed: 09/02/2023] Open
Abstract
The present study investigated the effect of facial masks on people's ability to perceive emotions in crowds. We presented faces with the bottom halves occluded by masks or full faces without occlusion. In two sequentially presented crowds, we varied the number of faces, emotional valence, and intensity of facial expressions, examining the impact of masks on the perception of crowd emotion. Participants reported which of the two crowds they would avoid based on the crowds' average emotions. The participants' ability to judge the average emotion of a crowd, especially a crowd expressing happiness, was impaired when the crowd wore masks. For faces covered by masks, crowd emotion judgments were more negatively biased than those without masks. However, participants could still distinguish the emotional intensities of a crowd wearing masks above chance. Additionally, participants responded more quickly to a crowd with more people without compromising accuracy, despite the perceptual challenges imposed by facial masks. Our results suggest that under ambiguous social situations in which individuals' emotions are partially hidden by masks, a large group may provide stronger social cues than a small group, thereby promoting communication and regulating social behaviors.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jieun Cho
- Graduate Program in Cognitive Science, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Hee Yeon Im
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Young Jun Yoon
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea
| | - Sung Jun Joo
- Department of Psychology, Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea
| | - Sang Chul Chong
- Graduate Program in Cognitive Science, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
- Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
| |
Collapse
|
19
|
Jia H, Wang Q, Feng X, Hu Z. Face mask reduces gaze-cueing effect. Sci Rep 2023; 13:13160. [PMID: 37573401 PMCID: PMC10423210 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-40195-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/06/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have found that face masks affect social cognition and behaviour in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The eyes, the only part of the face not covered by face masks, are an important spatial attention cue that can trigger social attention orienting. Here, we adopted a spatial gaze-cueing task to investigate whether face masks affect social attention orienting triggered by eye gaze cues. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to determine the orientation of a target line under two types of cues-masked and non-masked faces-and two stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) conditions (300 ms and 1000 ms). The results showed that masked faces induced a smaller gaze-cueing effect (GCE) compared to non-masked faces at 300 ms SOA, while two face types induced similar GCEs at 1000 ms SOA. Experiment 2 used mouth-obscured faces and non-masked faces as cues and found that no significant difference in GCE between the two types at either 300 ms or 1000 ms SOA, indicating that the reduction of GCE caused by the masked face was due to the social meaning expressed by the mask rather than a physical effect of masking. The present study extends previous findings to support the idea that high-level social information affects the processing of eye gaze direction and provides evidence that face masks affect social cognition and behaviour in the context of COVID-19.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Han Jia
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China
| | - Qi Wang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China
| | - Xinghe Feng
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhonghua Hu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, People's Republic of China.
| |
Collapse
|
20
|
Joseph RA, Carter B. Prosopagnosia (face blindness) and child health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurs Child Young People 2023; 35:28-34. [PMID: 36688257 DOI: 10.7748/ncyp.2023.e1454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Prosopagnosia or 'face blindness' is the inability to recognise people's faces. There are two types: congenital or developmental prosopagnosia, which is the most common, and acquired prosopagnosia, which may occur secondary to brain tumours, stroke or other brain disorders. The authors of this article explored if mask wearing as a result of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may affect social and developmental outcomes in children, including the development of prosopagnosia. Limited research on this topic is available and, although some relevant publications were found, no definitive evidence of mask-induced prosopagnosia in children was identified. However, nurses should be aware of this issue and discuss coping strategies to support children with the condition. Longitudinal studies on outcomes in children from different age groups who grew up during the COVID-19 pandemic will provide further insight.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Beth Carter
- Liberty University School of Nursing, Lynchburg VA, US
| |
Collapse
|
21
|
Wang S, Han C, Sang Z, Zhang X, Chen S, Wang H, Wang G, Xu Y, Lei X, Chen J. Hidden faces, altered perceptions: the impact of face masks on interpersonal perception. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1203442. [PMID: 37416539 PMCID: PMC10321351 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1203442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2023] [Accepted: 05/31/2023] [Indexed: 07/08/2023] Open
Abstract
The pandemic has made wearing masks commonplace, prompting researchers to investigate their effects on interpersonal perception. Findings indicate masks obstruct face identification and expression recognition, with lower face cues being most affected. When judging attractiveness, masks can enhance the appeal of less attractive faces, but reduce the appeal of more attractive faces. Trust and speech perception outcomes are inconclusive. Future studies could focus on individual differences in how masks influence our perception of others.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Shuai Wang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Chengyang Han
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Zihan Sang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xuhui Zhang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Shitao Chen
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Haoran Wang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Gang Wang
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yiqian Xu
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xue Lei
- School of Business Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China
| | - Jixu Chen
- Chinese Education Modernization Research Institute of Hangzhou Normal University (Zhejiang Provincial Key Think Tank), Hangzhou, China
| |
Collapse
|
22
|
Tashiro M, Sato S, Endo A, Hamashima R, Ito Y, Ashizawa N, Takeda K, Iwanaga N, Ide S, Fujita A, Takazono T, Yamamoto K, Tanaka T, Furumoto A, Yanagihara K, Mukae H, Fushimi K, Izumikawa K. Decreased community-acquired pneumonia coincided with rising awareness of precautions before governmental containment policy in Japan. PNAS NEXUS 2023; 2:pgad153. [PMID: 37234205 PMCID: PMC10208112 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Revised: 04/18/2023] [Accepted: 04/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
The effectiveness of population-wide compliance to personal precautions (mask-wearing and hand hygiene) in preventing community-acquired pneumonia has been unknown. In Japan, different types of nonpharmaceutical interventions from personal precautions to containment and closure policies (CACPs, e.g. stay-at-home requests) were sequentially introduced from late January to April 2020, allowing for separate analysis of the effects of personal precautions from other more stringent interventions. We quantified the reduction in community-acquired pneumonia hospitalizations and deaths and assessed if it coincided with the timing of increased public awareness of personal precautions before CACPs were implemented. A quasi-experimental interrupted time-series design was applied to non-COVID-19 pneumonia hospitalization and 30-day death data from April 2015 to August 2020 across Japan to identify any trend changes between February and April 2020. We also performed a comparative analysis of pyelonephritis and biliary tract infections to account for possible changes in the baseline medical attendance. These trend changes were then compared with multiple indicators of public awareness and behaviors related to personal precautions, including keyword usage in mass media coverage and sales of masks and hand hygiene products. Hospitalizations and 30-day deaths from non-COVID-19 pneumonia dropped by 24.3% (95% CI 14.8-32.8) and 16.1% (5.5-25.5), respectively, in February 2020, before the implementation of CACPs, whereas pyelonephritis and biliary tract infections did not suggest a detectable change. These changes coincided with increases in indicators related to personal precautions rather than those related to contact behavior changes. Community-acquired pneumonia could be reduced by population-wide compliance to moderate precautionary measures.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Ryosuke Hamashima
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
- Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465, Kajii-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan
| | - Yuya Ito
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Nobuyuki Ashizawa
- Infection Control and Education Center, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Kazuaki Takeda
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Naoki Iwanaga
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Shotaro Ide
- Infectious Diseases Experts Training Center, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Ayumi Fujita
- Infection Control and Education Center, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Takahiro Takazono
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Kazuko Yamamoto
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Takeshi Tanaka
- Infection Control and Education Center, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Akitsugu Furumoto
- Infectious Diseases Experts Training Center, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Katsunori Yanagihara
- Department of Laboratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Mukae
- Department of Respiratory Medicine, Nagasaki University Hospital, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan
| | - Kiyohide Fushimi
- Department of Health Policy and Informatics, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
| | | |
Collapse
|
23
|
Lander K, Saunders G. Face coverings: Considering the implications for face perception and speech communication. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2023; 8:24. [PMID: 37084036 PMCID: PMC10120481 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-023-00479-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Karen Lander
- Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
| | - Gabrielle Saunders
- Division of Psychology, Communication and Human Neuroscience, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
| |
Collapse
|
24
|
Lee Y, Jeong SK. When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2023; 8:21. [PMID: 37061622 PMCID: PMC10105537 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-023-00477-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/17/2023] Open
Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have been widely used in daily life. Previous studies have suggested that faces wearing typical masks that occlude the lower half of the face are perceived as more attractive than face without masks. However, relatively little work has been done on how transparent masks that reveal the lower half of the face affect the judgment of facial attractiveness. To investigate the effect of transparent masks on the perceived attractiveness, in the current study, we asked participants to rate the attractiveness of faces without masks and with a typical opaque mask and a transparent mask. The results showed that faces wearing opaque masks were evaluated as more attractive than those wearing transparent masks or no masks. The benefit of opaque masks was more pronounced in faces that were initially evaluated as unattractive. Interestingly, wearing transparent masks decreased the perceived attractiveness of faces but only for the faces initially rated as attractive, possibly because of the visual distortion of the lower half of the face by transparent masks. In summary, we found that opaque and transparent masks have different effects on perceived attractiveness, depending on the attractiveness of faces. Given benefits of transparent masks in socio-emotional and cognitive processing, it would be important to further understand the effect of transparent masks on face information processing.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yongseong Lee
- Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University, Chungdae-ro 1, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju, 28644, Chungbuk, Korea
| | - Su Keun Jeong
- Department of Psychology, Chungbuk National University, Chungdae-ro 1, Seowon-Gu, Cheongju, 28644, Chungbuk, Korea.
| |
Collapse
|
25
|
Leos-Mendoza H, Gold I, Pérez-Gay Juárez F. Face masks negatively skew theory of mind judgements. Sci Rep 2023; 13:4950. [PMID: 36973300 PMCID: PMC10041502 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31680-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Face masks obscure a significant portion of the face, reducing the amount of information available to gauge the mental states of others-that is, to exercise the Theory of Mind (ToM) capacity. In three experiments, we assessed the effect of face masks on ToM judgements, measuring recognition accuracy, perceived valence, and perceived arousal in various sets of facial expressions comprising 45 different mental states. Significant effects of face masks were found in all three variables. Judgements of all expressions are less accurate when masked, but, while judgements of negative expressions do not show consistent changes in valence or arousal, positive expressions are perceived to be less positive and less intense. In addition, we identified face muscles associated with changes in perceived valence and arousal, shedding light on the mechanisms through which masks impact ToM judgements, which might be relevant for mitigation strategies. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of the recent pandemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Héctor Leos-Mendoza
- Interfaculty Program of Cognitive Science, McGill University, Montreal, H3A 0G4, Canada
| | - Ian Gold
- Departments of Philosophy and Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, H3A 0G4, Canada.
| | | |
Collapse
|
26
|
Or CCF, Ng KYJ, Chia Y, Koh JH, Lim DY, Lee ALF. Face masks are less effective than sunglasses in masking face identity. Sci Rep 2023; 13:4284. [PMID: 36922579 PMCID: PMC10015138 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31321-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The effect of covering faces on face identification is recently garnering interest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we investigated how face identification performance was affected by two types of face disguise: sunglasses and face masks. Observers studied a series of faces; then judged whether a series of test faces, comprising studied and novel faces, had been studied before or not. Face stimuli were presented either without coverings (full faces), wearing sunglasses covering the upper region (eyes, eyebrows), or wearing surgical masks covering the lower region (nose, mouth, chin). We found that sunglasses led to larger reductions in sensitivity (d') to face identity than face masks did, while both disguises increased the tendency to report faces as studied before, a bias that was absent for full faces. In addition, faces disguised during either study or test only (i.e. study disguised faces, test with full faces; and vice versa) led to further reductions in sensitivity from both studying and testing with disguised faces, suggesting that congruence between study and test is crucial for memory retrieval. These findings implied that the upper region of the face, including the eye-region features, is more diagnostic for holistic face-identity processing than the lower face region.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Charles C-F Or
- Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639818, Singapore.
| | - Kester Y J Ng
- Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639818, Singapore
| | - Yiik Chia
- Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639818, Singapore
| | - Jing Han Koh
- Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639818, Singapore
| | - Denise Y Lim
- Division of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 48 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639818, Singapore
| | - Alan L F Lee
- Department of Psychology, Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong
| |
Collapse
|
27
|
Giovanelli E, Gianfreda G, Gessa E, Valzolgher C, Lamano L, Lucioli T, Tomasuolo E, Rinaldi P, Pavani F. The effect of face masks on sign language comprehension: performance and metacognitive dimensions. Conscious Cogn 2023; 109:103490. [PMID: 36842317 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2023.103490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Revised: 02/16/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2023] [Indexed: 02/27/2023]
Abstract
In spoken languages, face masks represent an obstacle to speech understanding and influence metacognitive judgments, reducing confidence and increasing effort while listening. To date, all studies on face masks and communication involved spoken languages and hearing participants, leaving us with no insight on how masked communication impacts on non-spoken languages. Here, we examined the effects of face masks on sign language comprehension and metacognition. In an online experiment, deaf participants (N = 60) watched three parts of a story signed without mask, with a transparent mask or with an opaque mask, and answered questions about story content, as well as their perceived effort, feeling of understanding, and confidence in their answers. Results showed that feeling of understanding and perceived effort worsened as the visual condition changed from no mask to transparent or opaque masks, while comprehension of the story was not significantly different across visual conditions. We propose that metacognitive effects could be due to the reduction of pragmatic, linguistic and para-linguistic cues from the lower face, hidden by the mask. This reduction could impact on lower-face linguistic components perception, attitude attribution, classification of emotions and prosody of a conversation, driving the observed effects on metacognitive judgments but leaving sign language comprehension substantially unchanged, even if with a higher effort. These results represent a novel step towards better understanding what drives metacognitive effects of face masks while communicating face to face and highlight the importance of including the metacognitive dimension in human communication research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elena Giovanelli
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences - CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy.
| | - Gabriele Gianfreda
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
| | - Elena Gessa
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences - CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Chiara Valzolgher
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences - CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Luca Lamano
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
| | - Tommaso Lucioli
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
| | - Elena Tomasuolo
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
| | - Pasquale Rinaldi
- Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), Rome, Italy
| | - Francesco Pavani
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences - CIMeC, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy; Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerca "Cognizione, Linguaggio e Sordità" - CIRCLeS, Trento, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
28
|
Pinto R, Lima D, Mello B, Albuquerque PB. Remembering to whom we transmit information during pandemics: the effect of face masks on destination memory. Cogn Process 2023; 24:233-243. [PMID: 36753007 PMCID: PMC9907208 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-023-01126-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/23/2023] [Indexed: 02/09/2023]
Abstract
Considering the global pandemic we currently experience, face masks have become standard in our daily routine. Even though surgical masks are established as a safety measure against the dissemination of COVID-19, previous research showed that their wearing compromises face recognition. Consequently, the capacity to remember to whom we transmit information-destination memory-could also be compromised. In our study, through a between-participants design (experiment 1) and a within-participants design (experiment 2), undergraduate students have to transmit Portuguese proverbs to masked and unmasked celebrity faces. Following our hypothesis, participants who shared information with masked faces had worse destination memory performance than those who shared information with unmasked faces. Also, we observed lower recognition for masked faces compared to unmasked faces. These results were expected since using a surgical mask affects facial recognition, thus making it harder to recognize a person to whom information was previously transmitted. More importantly, these results also support the idea that variables associated with the recipient's face are important for destination memory performance.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Raquel Pinto
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal.
| | - Diogo Lima
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
| | - Beatriz Mello
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
| | - Pedro B Albuquerque
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
| |
Collapse
|
29
|
Kamatani M, Miyazaki Y, Kawahara JI. Occlusion of faces by sanitary masks improves facial attractiveness of other races. Front Psychol 2023; 13:953389. [PMID: 36710777 PMCID: PMC9878602 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.953389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/26/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies provide mixed results regarding whether the perception of facial attractiveness is increased or decreased by partial occlusion with a sanitary mask. One set of studies demonstrated that occluding the bottom half of a face increased facial attractiveness. This effect is thought to occur because the occluded area is interpolated by an average facial representation that is perceived as attractive. However, several groups of studies showed that partial occlusion can increase or decrease perceived attractiveness depending on the attractiveness of the original (unoccluded) face, due to regression to the mean. To reconcile this inconsistency, we propose that the occluded area is interpolated not by an average facial representation, but by a template of moderate attractiveness, shaped by the distribution of each viewer's experience. This hypothesis predicts an interaction between occlusion and the attractiveness of the original face so that occluded attractive faces are rated as less attractive, while occluded unattractive faces are rated as more attractive. To examine this hypothesis, the present study used attractiveness-rating tasks with mask-free versus masked faces in own-race and other-races categories. Viewers were familiar with own-race faces and unfamiliar with other-races faces. If moderate-attractiveness interpolation were the explanatory factor, the interaction between the occlusion and the attractiveness of the original face should be found only in the rating of own-race faces. Consistent with this hypothesis, the interaction between the occlusion and the attractiveness of the original faces was significant only for the own-race faces. Specifically, wearing a sanitary mask decreased the facial attractiveness of attractive faces in the own-race, while it increased the attractiveness regardless of the level of facial attractiveness in other-races. These findings suggest that the occluded area of own-race faces is interpolated by a facial template of moderate attractiveness. The other-races template could be developed using familiar exemplars such as celebrities. Thus, interpolation by such a template should result in elevated attractiveness relative to that by an own-race template. Accordingly, the apparent inconsistency in the literature regarding the effect of partial occlusion on physical attractiveness can be explained in terms of differences in the template involving interpolation of the occluded area.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Miki Kamatani
- Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan,*Correspondence: Miki Kamatani, ✉
| | - Yuki Miyazaki
- Department of Psychology, Fukuyama University, Hiroshima, Japan
| | - Jun I. Kawahara
- Faculty of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan,Jun I. Kawahara, ✉
| |
Collapse
|
30
|
UIBVFED-Mask: A Dataset for Comparing Facial Expressions with and without Face Masks. DATA 2023. [DOI: 10.3390/data8010017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
After the COVID-19 pandemic the use of face masks has become a common practice in many situations. Partial occlusion of the face due to the use of masks poses new challenges for facial expression recognition because of the loss of significant facial information. Consequently, the identification and classification of facial expressions can be negatively affected when using neural networks in particular. This paper presents a new dataset of virtual characters, with and without face masks, with identical geometric information and spatial location. This novelty will certainly allow researchers a better refinement on lost information due to the occlusion of the mask.
Collapse
|
31
|
Bornand E, Letourneux F, Deschanvres C, Boutoille D, Lucet JC, Lepelletier D, Leclere B, Mayol S, Peiffer-Smadja N, Birgand G. Social representations of mask wearing in the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Front Public Health 2023; 11:1136980. [PMID: 37168075 PMCID: PMC10165064 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1136980] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Although one of the most prominent interventions against COVID-19, face masks seem poorly adopted by the general population. A growing body of literature has found that using face masks has social meaning. This qualitative study assessed the perceptions, representations and practices of mask wearing in the general population. Methods A qualitative survey by short semi-structured walking interviews was carried out from April to December 2021 in 11 cities in France's Pays de la Loire region. Study locations were selected for their varied geographical, social, and economic characteristics, with urbanized and rural areas. Four domains linked to perceptions of masks and wearing them were explored: (i) evolution in mask wearing, (ii) decision-making methods for wearing and not wearing; (iii) incorporating the mask into way of life; (iv) projecting into the future. Results A total of 116 people were interviewed. Masks marked a shift from the ordinary world to the pandemic. Overall, interviewees considered masks an obstacle to breathing, communication, and social interactions, leading to establishing strategies circumventing the mask mandate. Poor attention was paid to their medical usefulness as an obligatory clothing accessory. Mask-wearing decisions were driven by social relations, common sense, and vulnerability. The greater the feeling of security (i.e., being with close relatives), the less it was worn or worn properly, with decreased attention to others and their health. Most participants did not remember learning to wear a mask. Some were convinced that mask-wearing could not be learned (experiential knowledge). Institutions (school and work) played a central role by facilitating incorporation of masks into daily life. Conclusions This study emphasizes the need to reinforce the individual medical values of face masks to prevent COVID-19. Ambitious education and training programmes should be planned to learn how and when to wear masks. Institutions (work and school) may be critical for this purpose.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Elvire Bornand
- Centre Nantais de Sociologie (CENS), Université de Nantes, Nantes, France
| | | | - Colin Deschanvres
- Department of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital of Nantes and CIC 1413, INSERM, Nantes, France
| | - David Boutoille
- Department of Infectious Diseases, University Hospital of Nantes and CIC 1413, INSERM, Nantes, France
| | - Jean-Christophe Lucet
- Equipe de Prévention du Risque Infectieux, Claude Bernard Hospital, Assistance Publique—Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - Didier Lepelletier
- Unité de Gestion du Risque Infectieux, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Nantes, Nantes, France
| | - Brice Leclere
- Department of Medical Evaluation and Epidemiology, CHU Nantes, Nantes, France
| | - Séverine Mayol
- Department of Medical Evaluation and Epidemiology, CHU Nantes, Nantes, France
| | - Nathan Peiffer-Smadja
- Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, IAME, Paris, France
- Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department, Bichat—Claude Bernard Hospital, Assistance Publique—Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
- NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance at Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, London, United Kingdom
| | - Gabriel Birgand
- NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance at Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, London, United Kingdom
- Center for the Prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections Pays de la Loire, Nantes, France
- *Correspondence: Gabriel Birgand
| |
Collapse
|
32
|
Manuel Prieto J, Salas Sánchez J, Tierno Cordón J, Álvarez-Kurogi L, González-García H, Castro López R. Social anxiety and academic performance during COVID-19 in schoolchildren. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0280194. [PMID: 36634072 PMCID: PMC9836262 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to determine the perception of schoolchildren whether their academic performance improved or worsened during the pandemic, analyzing their social anxiety, gender, use of masks in the classroom, and school year. The total sample was 107 primary school students (25 in the fourth, 40 in the fifth and 42 in the sixth grade), with a mean age of 10.51 years old (SD = 1). The gender were 58 girls and 49 boys, from a school in the province of La Coruña (Spain). The study was based on a quantitative methodology, and the design was cross-sectional, descriptive, observational and correlational. The social anxiety questionnaire (CASO-N24) was used to assess social anxiety, and an ad hoc self-report register was elaborated to evaluate sociodemographic variables. The results indicated that 44.8% of the schoolchildren considered that the pandemic had neither improved nor worsened their academic performance. Although 38.3% considered that high and very high social anxiety increased progressively as the school year progressed, both in boys and girls. Besides, the schoolchildren who presented very low and low social anxiety improved their grades in Physical Education, while those who presented high social anxiety worsened them. In conclusion, having a low social anxiety, lower grades before the pandemic and higher grades after, makes children perceive an improvement in their academic performance during the pandemic.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Jesús Salas Sánchez
- Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
- Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Providencia, Chile
- * E-mail:
| | | | | | | | | |
Collapse
|
33
|
Ventura M, Palmisano A, Innamorato F, Tedesco G, Manippa V, Caffò AO, Rivolta D. Face memory and facial expression recognition are both affected by wearing disposable surgical face masks. Cogn Process 2023; 24:43-57. [PMID: 36242672 PMCID: PMC9568966 DOI: 10.1007/s10339-022-01112-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Faces are fundamental stimuli for social interactions since they provide significant information about people's identity and emotional states. With the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic, global use of preventive measures, such as disposable surgical face masks (DSFMs), has been imposed. The massive use of DSFMs covering a large part of the face could interfere with identity and emotion recognition. Thus, the main aim of the current study was (i) to assess how DSFMs affect identity recognition (Experiment 1), (ii) how DSFMs affect emotion recognition (Experiment 2), and (iii) whether individual empathy levels correlate with emotion recognition with DSFMs. The potential relation between identity and emotion recognition with and without DSFMs was also investigated. Two tasks were administered to 101 healthy participants: (i) the Old-new face memory task aimed to assess whether the learning context (i.e., DSFMs on/off) affects recognition performance, whereas (ii) the Facial affect task explored DSFMs' effect on emotion recognition. Results from the former showed that the stimuli's features in the learning stage affect recognition performances; that is, faces wearing DSFMs were better recognized if wearing DSFMs at first exposure and vice versa. Results from the Facial affect task showed that DSFMs lead to reduced disgust, happiness, and sadness recognition. No significant correlation emerged between identity and emotion recognition. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was administered to assess affective and cognitive empathy; however, IRI scores did not correlate with either face memory recognition or facial affect recognition. Overall, our results demonstrate (a) a "context effect" for face memory with and without DSFMs; (b) a disruptive effect of DSFMs depending on the expressed emotion; and (c) no correlation between empathy and emotion recognition with DSFMs.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M. Ventura
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - A. Palmisano
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - F. Innamorato
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - G. Tedesco
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - V. Manippa
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - A. O. Caffò
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| | - Davide Rivolta
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
34
|
Ganel T, Sofer C, Goodale MA. Biases in human perception of facial age are present and more exaggerated in current AI technology. Sci Rep 2022; 12:22519. [PMID: 36581653 PMCID: PMC9800363 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-27009-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/23/2022] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Our estimates of a person's age from their facial appearance suffer from several well-known biases and inaccuracies. Typically, for example, we tend to overestimate the age of smiling faces compared to those with a neutral expression, and the accuracy of our estimates decreases for older faces. The growing interest in age estimation using artificial intelligence (AI) technology raises the question of how AI compares to human performance and whether it suffers from the same biases. Here, we compared human performance with the performance of a large sample of the most prominent AI technology available today. The results showed that AI is even less accurate and more biased than human observers when judging a person's age-even though the overall pattern of errors and biases is similar. Thus, AI overestimated the age of smiling faces even more than human observers did. In addition, AI showed a sharper decrease in accuracy for faces of older adults compared to faces of younger age groups, for smiling compared to neutral faces, and for female compared to male faces. These results suggest that our estimates of age from faces are largely driven by particular visual cues, rather than high-level preconceptions. Moreover, the pattern of errors and biases we observed could provide some insights for the design of more effective AI technology for age estimation from faces.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Tzvi Ganel
- grid.7489.20000 0004 1937 0511Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 8410500 Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Carmel Sofer
- grid.7489.20000 0004 1937 0511Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 8410500 Beer-Sheva, Israel ,grid.7489.20000 0004 1937 0511Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 8410500 Beer-Sheva, Israel
| | - Melvyn A. Goodale
- grid.39381.300000 0004 1936 8884The Western Institute for Neuroscience, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 5B7 Canada
| |
Collapse
|
35
|
Wagemann J, Tewes C, Raggatz J. Wearing face masks impairs dyadic micro-activities in nonverbal social encounter: A mixed-methods first-person study on the sense of I and Thou. Front Psychol 2022; 13:983652. [PMID: 36591068 PMCID: PMC9798329 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.983652] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/16/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has manifold negative consequences for people around the world, of which the psychosocial ones have been rather underrepresented in the public eye. Regarding social distancing measures, there is already some experimental work demonstrating that the use of face masks has detrimental effects on various aspects of social cognition such as emotion reading, face identification, and perceived closeness of persons. However, while these findings provide important clues, they do not shed light on what people experience when interacting in real life in a masked society. Therefore, in critical distance to cognitivist accounts and taking Direct Social Perception (DSP) approaches seriously, we developed a first-person experimental design and conducted a study with thirty-four participants in a dyadic setting with two conditions (without vs. with face mask). Data were analyzed with mixed methods including in-depth qualitative coding at three levels, code relations analyses, and various statistical tests. Results yielded significant differences across conditions at all qualitative levels, comprising, for example, expressive behavior, and, in particular, significant decreases of content-independent, complimentary mental micro-activities. In the context of DSP, we argue in the paper that these activities suggest the constitution of a quasi-sensory modality - conceived as I-Thou sense - that oscillates between strongly and weakly embodied mental activities, as the analyses show. In sum, this study suggests that mask-wearing impairs both functional directions of mental activity in relation to more or less embodied experience and thus intervenes deeply in fundamental processes of social perception and interaction.
Collapse
|
36
|
Estudillo AJ, Wong HK. Two face masks are better than one: congruency effects in face matching. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:49. [PMID: 35674914 PMCID: PMC9175166 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00402-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 05/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Although the positive effects of congruency between stimuli are well replicated in face memory paradigms, mixed findings have been found in face matching. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, face masks are now very common during daily life outdoor activities. Thus, the present study aims to further explore congruency effects in matching faces partially occluded by surgical masks. Observers performed a face matching task consisting of pairs of faces presented in full view (i.e., full-view condition), pairs of faces in which only one of the faces had a mask (i.e., one-mask condition), and pairs of faces in which both faces had a mask (i.e., two-mask condition). Although face masks disrupted performance in identity match and identity mismatch trials, in match trials, we found better performance in the two-mask condition compared to the one-mask condition. This finding highlights the importance of congruency between stimuli on face matching when telling faces together.
Collapse
|
37
|
Tso RV, Chui CO, Hsiao JH. How does face mask in COVID-19 pandemic disrupt face learning and recognition in adults with autism spectrum disorder? Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:64. [PMID: 35867196 PMCID: PMC9306242 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00407-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Use of face masks is one of the measures adopted by the general community to stop the transmission of disease during this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This wide use of face masks has indeed been shown to disrupt day-to-day face recognition. People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have predisposed impairment in face recognition and are expected to be more vulnerable to this disruption in face recognition. Here, we recruited typically developing adult participants and those with ASD, and we measured their non-verbal intelligence, autism spectrum quotient, empathy quotient, and recognition performances of faces with and without a face mask covering the lower halves of the face. When faces were initially learned unobstructed, we showed that participants had a general reduced face recognition performance for masked faces. In contrast, when masked faces were first learned, typically developing adults benefit with an overall advantage in recognizing both masked and unmasked faces; while adults with ASD recognized unmasked faces with a significantly more reduced level of performance than masked faces—this face recognition discrepancy is predicted by a higher level of autistic traits. This paper also discusses how autistic traits influence processing of faces with and without face masks.
Collapse
|
38
|
Lobmaier JS, Knoch D. Face masks have a limited effect on the feeling of being looked at. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:1028915. [PMID: 36523436 PMCID: PMC9745070 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1028915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 11/10/2022] [Indexed: 08/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Wearing face masks has been promoted as an effective measure to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Because face masks cover a major part of the face, they have detrimental effects on various aspects of social cognition. Yet, a highly important feature of the face is not occluded by face masks: the eyes. The eyes play an important role in social interactions: knowing where another person is looking is of central importance when interacting with others. Recent research has reported an attentional shift toward the eye region as a consequence of the widespread exposure to face masks. However, no study has yet investigated the influence of face masks on the perception of eye gaze direction. Here we investigated whether face masks have an effect on the feeling of being looked at. Assuming an attentional shift toward the eyes, we might expect more accurate gaze perception in faces wearing face masks. Methods Sixty-five participants decided for a series of realistic avatar faces whether each face was making eye contact or not. Half of the faces wore face masks, the other half did not. For each participant and separately for each condition (mask vs. no mask), we calculated the cone of direct gaze (CoDG), a commonly used measure to quantify the range of gaze angles within which an observer assumes mutual gaze. Results Contrary to our expectations, results show that mutual gaze is not recognized more accurately in masked faces. Rather, the CoDG was, on average, slightly wider for faces wearing masks compared to faces without masks. Discussion Notwithstanding the relatively small effect of face mask, these findings potentially have implications on our social interactions. If we inadvertently feel looked at by an onlooker, we may react inappropriately by reciprocating the alleged approach orientation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Janek S. Lobmaier
- Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Daria Knoch
- Department of Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
39
|
Rabadan V, Ricou C, Latinus M, Aguillon-Hernandez N, Wardak C. Facial mask disturbs ocular exploration but not pupil reactivity. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:1033243. [DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1033243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has imposed to wear a face mask that may have negative consequences for social interactions despite its health benefits. A lot of recent studies focused on emotion recognition of masked faces, as the mouth is, with the eyes, essential to convey emotional content. However, none have studied neurobehavioral and neurophysiological markers of masked faces perception, such as ocular exploration and pupil reactivity. The purpose of this eye tracking study was to quantify how wearing a facial accessory, and in particular a face mask, affected the ocular and pupillary response to a face, emotional or not.MethodsWe used videos of actors wearing a facial accessory to characterize the visual exploration and pupillary response in several occlusion (no accessory, sunglasses, scarf, and mask) and emotional conditions (neutral, happy, and sad) in a population of 44 adults.ResultsWe showed that ocular exploration differed for face covered with an accessory, and in particular a mask, compared to the classical visual scanning pattern of a non-covered face. The covered areas of the face were less explored. Pupil reactivity seemed only slightly affected by the mask, while its sensitivity to emotions was observed even in the presence of a facial accessory.DiscussionThese results suggest a mixed impact of the mask on attentional capture and physiological adjustment, which does not seem to be reconcilable with its strong effect on behavioral emotional recognition previously described.
Collapse
|
40
|
COVID-19 masks increase the influence of face recognition algorithm decisions on human decisions in unfamiliar face matching. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0277625. [PMID: 36409731 PMCID: PMC9678274 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277625] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Face masks, recently adopted to reduce the spread of COVID-19, have had the unintended consequence of increasing the difficulty of face recognition. In security applications, face recognition algorithms are used to identify individuals and present results for human review. This combination of human and algorithm capabilities, known as human-algorithm teaming, is intended to improve total system performance. However, prior work has shown that human judgments of face pair similarity-confidence can be biased by an algorithm's decision even in the case of an error by that algorithm. This can reduce team effectiveness, particularly for difficult face pairs. We conducted two studies to examine whether face masks, now routinely present in security applications, impact the degree to which this cognitive bias is experienced by humans. We first compared the influence of algorithm's decisions on human similarity-confidence ratings in the presence and absence of face masks and found that face masks more than doubled the influence of algorithm decisions on human similarity-confidence ratings. We then investigated if this increase in cognitive bias was dependent on perceived algorithm accuracy by also presenting algorithm accuracy rates in the presence of face masks. We found that making humans aware of the potential for algorithm errors mitigated the increase in cognitive bias due to face masks. Our findings suggest that humans reviewing face recognition algorithm decisions should be made aware of the potential for algorithm errors to improve human-algorithm team performance.
Collapse
|
41
|
Freud E, Di Giammarino D, Camilleri C. Mask-wearing selectivity alters observers’ face perception. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:97. [PMID: 36380225 PMCID: PMC9666572 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00444-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 10/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Face masks became prevalent across the globe as an efficient tool to stop the spread of COVID-19. A host of studies already demonstrated that masks lead to changes in facial identification and emotional expression processing. These changes were documented across ages and were consistent even with the increased exposure to masked faces. Notably, mask-wearing also changes the state of the observers in regard to their own bodies and other agents. Previous research has already demonstrated a plausible association between observers’ states and their perceptual behaviors. Thus, an outstanding question is whether mask-wearing would alter face recognition abilities. To address this question, we conducted a set of experiments in which participants were asked to recognize non-masked faces (Experiment 1), masked faces (Experiment 2) and novel objects (Experiment 3) while they were either masked or unmasked. Mask wearing hindered face perception abilities but did not modulate object recognition ability. Finally, we demonstrated that the decrement in face perception ability relied on wearing the mask on distinctive facial features (Experiment 4). Together, these findings reveal a novel effect of mask-wearing on face recognition. We discuss these results considering the plausible effect of somatosensory stimulation on visual processing as well as the effect of involuntary perspective taking.
Collapse
|
42
|
Castelli L, Tumino M, Carraro L. Face mask use as a categorical dimension in social perception. Sci Rep 2022; 12:17860. [PMID: 36284157 PMCID: PMC9595091 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22772-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Prevention measures aimed at combating COVID-19 pandemic strongly impact several aspects of social life. In particular, interpersonal perception is affected as a function of whether the persons perceived wear or not face masks. In two experimental studies, we here explored whether people rely on the presence vs. absence of face masks when encoding information in memory about other individuals. In a memory confusion paradigm, participants were initially presented with individuals either wearing a face mask or not, each conveying a series of sentences. Next, participants were probed about the identity of the speaker of each sentence. Results showed that it was more likely to erroneously attribute a sentence to a speaker who also was wearing a face mask (or not) as the original speaker, demonstrating that the cue about wearing or not a face mask was spontaneously used to encode information. Study 2 ruled out an alternative explanation based on perceptual processes, suggesting that face masks represent meaningful social objects. Overall, it emerged that participants spontaneously categorize others as a function of whether they wear a mask or not. Findings also confirmed previous research evidence about the more positive evaluation of mask wearers as compared to non-wearers, and the overall detrimental impact that face masks may have on the correct identification of social targets.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Luigi Castelli
- grid.5608.b0000 0004 1757 3470Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Matilde Tumino
- grid.5608.b0000 0004 1757 3470Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Luciana Carraro
- grid.5608.b0000 0004 1757 3470Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy
| |
Collapse
|
43
|
Wong HK, Estudillo AJ. Face masks affect emotion categorisation, age estimation, recognition, and gender classification from faces. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:91. [PMID: 36209185 PMCID: PMC9547636 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00438-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Although putting on a mask over our nose and mouth is a simple but powerful way to protect ourselves and others during a pandemic, face masks may interfere with how we perceive and recognize one another, and hence, may have far-reaching impacts on communication and social interactions. To date, it remains relatively unknown the extent to which wearing a face mask that conceals the bottom part of the face affects the extraction of different facial information. To address this question, we compared young adults' performance between masked and unmasked faces in four different tasks: (1) emotion recognition task, (2) famous face recognition and naming test, (3) age estimation task, and (4) gender classification task. Results revealed that the presence of face mask has a negative impact on famous face recognition and emotion recognition, but to a smaller extent on age estimation and gender classification tasks. More interestingly, we observed a female advantage in the famous face recognition and emotion recognition tasks and a female own-gender bias in gender categorisation and age estimation tasks. Overall, these findings allude to the lack of malleability of the adulthood face recognition and perceptual systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hoo Keat Wong
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia.
| | - Alejandro J Estudillo
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
| |
Collapse
|
44
|
Guerra N, Pinto R, Mendes PS, Rodrigues PFS, Albuquerque PB. The impact of COVID-19 on memory: Recognition for masked and unmasked faces. Front Psychol 2022; 13:960941. [PMID: 36275225 PMCID: PMC9583883 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.960941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Considering the current state of the worldwide pandemic, it is still common to encounter people wearing face protection masks. Although a safety measure against COVID-19, face masks might be compromising our capacity for face recognition. We conducted an online study where 140 participants observed masked and unmasked faces in a within-subjects design and then performed a recognition memory task. The best performance was found when there were no masks either at study and test phase, i.e., at the congruent unmasked condition. The worst performance was found for faces encoded with a mask but tested without it (i.e., masked-unmasked incongruent condition), which can be explained by the disruption in holistic face processing and the violation of the encoding specificity principle. Interestingly, considering the unmasked-masked incongruent condition, performance was probably affected by the violation of the encoding specificity principle but protected by holistic processing that occurred during encoding.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Natália Guerra
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Raquel Pinto
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
| | - Pedro S. Mendes
- Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Pedro F. S. Rodrigues
- Portucalense Institute for Human Development (INPP), Portucalense University, Porto, Portugal
| | - Pedro B. Albuquerque
- School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
- *Correspondence: Pedro B. Albuquerque,
| |
Collapse
|
45
|
Carlaw BN, Huebert AM, McNeely-White KL, Rhodes MG, Cleary AM. Detecting a familiar person behind the surgical mask: recognition without identification among masked versus sunglasses-covered faces. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:90. [PMID: 36195737 PMCID: PMC9531854 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00440-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research has shown that even when famous people’s identities cannot be discerned from faces that have been filtered with monochromatic noise, these unidentifiable famous faces still tend to receive higher familiarity ratings than similarly filtered non-famous faces. Experiment 1 investigated whether a similar face recognition without identification effect would occur among faces whose identification was hindered through the wearing of a surgical mask. Among a mixture of famous and non-famous faces wearing surgical masks and hoods, participants rated how familiar each person seemed then attempted to identify the person. Though surgical masks significantly impaired identification of the famous faces, unidentified masked famous faces received higher familiarity ratings on average than the non-famous masked faces, suggesting that a sense of familiarity could still occur even when identification was impaired by the mask. Experiment 2 compared faces covered by surgical masks with faces covered by sunglasses. Though sunglasses impaired face identification more than surgical masks, the magnitude of the face recognition without identification effect was the same in both cases. This pattern suggests that holistic face processing is not a requirement for the sense of familiarity with a face, and that different facial feature types can contribute.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brooke N. Carlaw
- grid.47894.360000 0004 1936 8083Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, 1876 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876 USA
| | - Andrew M. Huebert
- grid.47894.360000 0004 1936 8083Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, 1876 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876 USA
| | - Katherine L. McNeely-White
- grid.27860.3b0000 0004 1936 9684Department of Neurology, University of California Davis, Sacramento, CA 95816 USA
| | - Matthew G. Rhodes
- grid.47894.360000 0004 1936 8083Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, 1876 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876 USA
| | - Anne M. Cleary
- grid.47894.360000 0004 1936 8083Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, 1876 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876 USA
| |
Collapse
|
46
|
Thomas L, von Castell C, Hecht H. How facial masks alter the interaction of gaze direction, head orientation, and emotion recognition. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:937939. [PMID: 36213742 PMCID: PMC9533556 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.937939] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Accepted: 09/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way we interact with each other: mandatory mask-wearing obscures facial information that is crucial for emotion recognition. Whereas the influence of wearing a mask on emotion recognition has been repeatedly investigated, little is known about the impact on interaction effects among emotional signals and other social signals. Therefore, the current study sought to explore how gaze direction, head orientation, and emotional expression interact with respect to emotion perception, and how these interactions are altered by wearing a face mask. In two online experiments, we presented face stimuli from the Radboud Faces Database displaying different facial expressions (anger, fear, happiness, neutral, and sadness), gaze directions (−13°, 0°, and 13°), and head orientations (−45°, 0°, and 45°) – either without (Experiment 1) or with mask (Experiment 2). Participants categorized the displayed emotional expressions. Not surprisingly, masks impaired emotion recognition. Surprisingly, without the mask, emotion recognition was unaffected by averted head orientations and only slightly affected by gaze direction. The mask strongly interfered with this ability. The mask increased the influence of head orientation and gaze direction, in particular for the emotions that were poorly recognized with mask. The results suggest that in case of uncertainty due to ambiguity or absence of signals, we seem to unconsciously factor in extraneous information.
Collapse
|
47
|
Freud E, Di Giammarino D, Stajduhar A, Rosenbaum RS, Avidan G, Ganel T. Recognition of Masked Faces in the Era of the Pandemic: No Improvement Despite Extensive Natural Exposure. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:1635-1650. [DOI: 10.1177/09567976221105459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Face masks, which became prevalent across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic, have had a negative impact on face recognition despite the availability of critical information from uncovered face parts, especially the eyes. An outstanding question is whether face-mask effects would be attenuated following extended natural exposure. This question also pertains, more generally, to face-recognition training protocols. We used the Cambridge Face Memory Test in a cross-sectional study ( N = 1,732 adults) at six different time points over a 20-month period, alongside a 12-month longitudinal study ( N = 208). The results of the experiments revealed persistent deficits in recognition of masked faces and no sign of improvement across time points. Additional experiments verified that the amount of individual experience with masked faces was not correlated with the mask effect. These findings provide compelling evidence that the face-processing system does not easily adapt to visual changes in face stimuli, even following prolonged real-life exposure.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Erez Freud
- Department of Psychology and the Centre for Vision Research, York University
| | | | - Andreja Stajduhar
- Department of Psychology and the Centre for Vision Research, York University
| | - R. Shayna Rosenbaum
- Department of Psychology and the Centre for Vision Research, York University
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, Canada
| | - Galia Avidan
- Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
- Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
| | - Tzvi Ganel
- Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
| |
Collapse
|
48
|
Ganel T, Goodale MA. Smiling makes you look older, even when you wear a mask: the effect of face masks on age perception. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2022; 7:84. [PMID: 36068390 PMCID: PMC9448834 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-022-00432-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The widespread use of face masks in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic has promoted research on their effect on the perception and recognition of faces. There is growing evidence that masks hinder the recognition of identity and expression, as well as the interpretation of speech from facial cues. It is less clear whether and in what manner masks affect the perception of age from facial cues. Recent research has emphasized the role of the upper region of the face, a part not covered by a mask, in the evaluation of age. For example, smile-related wrinkles in the region of the eyes make smiling faces appear older than neutral faces of the same individuals (the aging effect of smiling, AES). In two experiments, we tested the effect of face masks on age evaluations of neutral and smiling faces in a range of different age groups from 20 to 80 years. The results showed that smiling faces were perceived as older than neutral faces even when individuals were wearing a face mask—and there was no effect of masks on bias in age evaluations. Additional analyses showed reduced accuracy in age evaluations for smiling compared to neutral faces and for masked compared to unmasked faces. The results converge on previous studies emphasizing the importance of the upper region of the face in evaluations of age.
Collapse
|
49
|
Tcherkassof A, Busquet M, Hurtig M, Thollon Behar M. Les effets du port du masque sanitaire sur les jeunes enfants en lieux d’accueil collectif. PSYCHOLOGIE FRANCAISE 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.psfr.2022.04.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/16/2022]
|
50
|
Villani C, D’Ascenzo S, Scerrati E, Ricciardelli P, Nicoletti R, Lugli L. Wearing the face mask affects our social attention over space. Front Psychol 2022; 13:923558. [PMID: 35992481 PMCID: PMC9386249 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.923558] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that covering the face inhibits the recognition of identity and emotional expressions. However, it might also make the eyes more salient, since they are a reliable index to orient our social and spatial attention. This study investigates (1) whether the pervasive interaction with people with face masks fostered by the COVID-19 pandemic modulates the processing of spatial information essential to shift attention according to other’s eye-gaze direction (i.e., gaze-cueing effect: GCE), and (2) whether this potential modulation interacts with motor responses (i.e., Simon effect). Participants were presented with face cues orienting their gaze to a congruent or incongruent target letter location (gaze-cueing paradigm) while wearing a surgical mask (Mask), a patch (Control), or nothing (No-Mask). The task required to discriminate the identity of the lateralized target letters by pressing one of two lateralized response keys, in a corresponding or a non-corresponding position with respect to the target. Results showed that GCE was not modulated by the presence of the Mask, but it occurred in the No-Mask condition, confirming previous studies. Crucially, the GCE interacted with Simon effect in the Mask and Control conditions, though in different ways. While in the Mask condition the GCE emerged only when target and response positions corresponded (i.e., Simon-corresponding trials), in the Control condition it emerged only when they did not correspond (i.e., Simon-non-corresponding trials). These results indicate that people with face masks induce us to jointly orient our visual attention in the direction of the seen gaze (GCE) in those conditions resembling (or associated with) a general approaching behavior (Simon-corresponding trials). This is likely promoted by the fact that we tend to perceive wearing the mask as a personal safety measure and, thus, someone wearing the face mask is perceived as a trustworthy person. In contrast, people with a patch on their face can be perceived as more threatening, therefore inducing a GCE in those conditions associated with a general avoidance behavior (Simon-non-corresponding trials).
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Caterina Villani
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- *Correspondence: Caterina Villani, ;
| | - Stefania D’Ascenzo
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Elisa Scerrati
- Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
| | - Paola Ricciardelli
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
- Milan Centre for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Roberto Nicoletti
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Luisa Lugli
- Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| |
Collapse
|