Perception of Facial Expressions of Emotion During Binocular Rivalry

Binocular rivalry is the perceptual alternation between two incompatible stimuli presented simultaneously but to each eye separately. The observer's perception switches back and forth between the two stimuli that are competing for perceptual dominance. In two studies, pictures of emotional face...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emotion (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2009-04, Vol.9 (2), p.172-182
Main Authors: Yoon, K. Lira, Hong, Sang Wook, Joormann, Jutta, Kang, Para
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Affectivity. Emotion
Binocular Vision
Biological and medical sciences
Depression
Depression - physiopathology
Depression - psychology
Dominance, Ocular - physiology
Emotions
Facial Expression
Facial Expressions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Major Depression
Male
Medical sciences
Mood disorders
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Perception
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Regression Analysis
Social Perception
Symptoms
United States
Vision
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Summary:Binocular rivalry is the perceptual alternation between two incompatible stimuli presented simultaneously but to each eye separately. The observer's perception switches back and forth between the two stimuli that are competing for perceptual dominance. In two studies, pictures of emotional faces (disgust and happy) were pitted against each other or against pictures of faces with neutral expressions. Study 1 demonstrated that (a) emotional facial expressions predominate over neutral expressions, and (b) positive facial expressions predominate over negative facial expression (i.e., positivity bias). Study 2 examined individual differences in emotional predominance and positivity bias during binocular rivalry. Although the positivity bias was not affected by the levels of depressive symptoms, results demonstrated that emotional predominance diminished as the level of depressive symptoms increased. These results indicate that individuals who report more depressive symptoms compared to their less depressed counterparts tend to assign more meaning to neutral faces.
ISSN:1528-3542
1931-1516
DOI:10.1037/a0014714