School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Neuropsychology. 2010 Jan;24(1):84-9. doi: 10.1037/a0017202.
Previous work has consistently reported a facilitatory influence of positive emotion in face recognition (e.g., D'Argembeau, Van der Linden, Comblain, & Etienne, 2003). However, these reports asked participants to make recognition judgments in response to faces, and it is unknown whether emotional valence may influence other stages of processing, such as at the level of semantics. Furthermore, other evidence suggests that negative rather than positive emotion facilitates higher level judgments when processing nonfacial stimuli (e.g., Mickley & Kensinger, 2008), and it is possible that negative emotion also influences latter stages of face processing. The present study addressed this issue, examining the influence of emotional valence while participants made semantic judgments in response to a set of famous faces. Eye movements were monitored while participants performed this task, and analyses revealed a reduction in information extraction for the faces of liked and disliked celebrities compared with those of emotionally neutral celebrities. Thus, in contrast to work using familiarity judgments, both positive and negative emotion facilitated processing in this semantic-based task. This pattern of findings is discussed in relation to current models of face processing.
先前的研究一直报告积极情绪对面部识别具有促进作用（例如，D'Argembeau、Van der Linden、Comblain 和 Etienne，2003）。然而，这些报告要求参与者根据面部做出识别判断，并且尚不清楚情绪效价是否会影响其他处理阶段，例如语义水平。此外，其他证据表明，在处理非面部刺激时，负性情绪而非正性情绪会促进更高层次的判断（例如，Mickley 和 Kensinger，2008），并且负性情绪也可能影响面部处理的后期阶段。本研究解决了这个问题，在参与者对一组著名面孔做出语义判断时，考察了情绪效价的影响。在参与者执行此任务时监测了眼动，分析结果表明，与情绪中性的名人相比，喜欢和不喜欢的名人的面孔的信息提取减少。因此，与使用熟悉度判断的工作相反，积极和消极情绪都促进了这种基于语义的任务的处理。讨论了这一发现模式与当前的面部处理模型的关系。
