TY - JOUR
T1 - Detection of emotional faces
T2 - low perceptual threshold and wide attentional span
AU - Calvo, Manuel G.
AU - Esteves, Francisco
N1 - Funding Information:
Please address all correspondence to: Manuel G. Calvo, Department of Cognitive Psychology, University of La Laguna, 38205 Tenerife, Spain. Email: [email protected] This research was supported by Grant BSO2001-3753, from the DGI, Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. We are grateful to Daniel Lundqvist and Margaret Dowens for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2005/1
Y1 - 2005/1
N2 - In two experiments, prime face stimuli with an emotional or a neutral expression were presented individually for 25 to 125 ms, either in foveal or parafoveal vision; following a mask, a probe face or a word label appeared for recognition. Accurate detection and sensitivity (A′) were higher for angry, happy, and sad faces than for nonemotional (neutral) or novel (scheming) faces at short exposure times (25-75 ms), in both the foveal and the parafoveal field, and with both the probe face and the probe word. These results indicate that there is a low perceptual threshold for unambiguous emotional faces, which are especially likely to be detected both within and outside the focus of attention; and that this facilitated detection involves processing of the affective meaning of faces, not only discrimination of formal visual features.
AB - In two experiments, prime face stimuli with an emotional or a neutral expression were presented individually for 25 to 125 ms, either in foveal or parafoveal vision; following a mask, a probe face or a word label appeared for recognition. Accurate detection and sensitivity (A′) were higher for angry, happy, and sad faces than for nonemotional (neutral) or novel (scheming) faces at short exposure times (25-75 ms), in both the foveal and the parafoveal field, and with both the probe face and the probe word. These results indicate that there is a low perceptual threshold for unambiguous emotional faces, which are especially likely to be detected both within and outside the focus of attention; and that this facilitated detection involves processing of the affective meaning of faces, not only discrimination of formal visual features.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=14844366590&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13506280444000094
DO - 10.1080/13506280444000094
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:14844366590
SN - 1350-6285
VL - 12
SP - 13
EP - 27
JO - Visual Cognition
JF - Visual Cognition
IS - 1
ER -