Visual field asymmetry in facial affect perception: moderating effects of hypnosis, hypnotic susceptibility level, absorption, and sustained attentional abilities.

Effects of hypnotic level, affect valence and cerebral asymmetry on reaction time (RT) in the discrimination of Ekman and Friesen's (1978) stimuli of angry and happy faces were studied in counterbalanced conditions of waking and hypnosis. Assessed previously on two hypnotic susceptibility scales [Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility; Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSSC)], non-depressed subjects were 16 low (0-4 SHSSC) and 17 highly (10-12 SHSSC) hypnotizable, right-handed college students. Subjects were required to identify affects of faces, presented tachistoscopically to left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual fields, by using a forced-choice RT paradigm. Highs were significantly faster than lows in angry and happy affect recognition. Hypnosis had no significant effects. For highs only, angry emotional valence was identified faster when presented to the right hemisphere (LVF), but there were no significant hemispheric effects for happy emotional valence. For lows there were no hemispheric differences. Gender was a nonsignificant factor. Significant correlations showed that faster reaction times to angry and happy stimuli, in both LVF and RVF in waking and hypnosis, were obtained by subjects who reported more deeply absorbed and extremely focused and sustained attention on the Tellegen (1982) Absorption Scale and a subscale of the Differential Attentional Processes Inventory (Grumbles & Crawford, 1981). Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (Marks, 1973) and Affect Intensity Measure (Larsen, 1985), in general, did not correlate with RTs. The potential role of the fronto-limbic attentional system in the recognition of external visual sensory affect is discussed.