Psychophysical evidence for distinct contributions in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions in backward masking task

• Authors: Remigiusz Szczepanowski , Agata Sobków
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The present report examined the hypothesis that two distinct visual routes contribute in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions. Having the participants presented with a backwardly masked task, we analyzed conscious processing of spatial frequency contents of emotional faces according to both objective and subjective taskrelevant criteria. It was shown that fear perception in the presence of the low-frequency faces can be supported by stronger automaticity leading to less false positives. In contrary, the detection of high-frequency fearful faces was more likely supported by conscious awareness leading to more true positives.

Keywords

EN

face processing; spatial frequency; fear; awareness; backward masking; automaticity

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 167-172

Contributors

author

Remigiusz Szczepanowski

• Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Wroclaw

author

Agata Sobków

• Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Wroclaw, Poland