Abstract
In the present study, we examined whether the detection advantage for negative-face targets in crowds of positive-face distractors over positive-face targets in crowds of negative faces can be explained by differentially efficient distractor rejection. Search Condition A demonstrated more efficient distractor rejection with negative-face targets in positive-face crowds than vice versa. Search Condition B showed that target identity alone is not sufficient to account for this effect, because there was no difference in processing efficiency for positive- and negative-face targets within neutral crowds. Search Condition C showed differentially efficient processing with neutral-face targets among positive- or negative-face distractors. These results were obtained with both a within-participants (Experiment 1) and a between-participants (Experiment 2) design. The pattern of results is consistent with the assumption that efficient rejection of positive (more homogenous) distractors is an important determinant of performance in search among (face) distractors.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Duncan, J., &Humphreys, G. W. (1989). Visual search and stimulus similarity.Psychological Review,96, 433–458.
Eastwood, J. D., Smilek, D., &,Merikle, P. M. (2001). Differential attentional guidance by unattended faces expressing positive and negative emotion.Perception & Psychophysics,63, 1004–1013.
Eastwood, J. D., Smilek, D., &Merikle, P. M. (2003). Negative facial expression captures attention and disrupts performance.Perception & Psychophysics,65, 352–358.
Fox, E., Lester, V., Russo, R., Bowles, R. J., Pichler, A., &Dutton, K. (2000). Facial expressions of emotion: Are angry faces detected more efficiently?Cognition & Emotion,14, 61–92.
Fox, E., Russo, R., &Dutton, K. (2002). Attentional bias for threat: Evidence for delayed disengagement from emotional faces.Cognition & Emotion,16, 355–379.
Hampton, C., Purcell, D. G., Bersine, L., Hansen, C. H., &Hansen, R. D. (1989). Probing “pop-out”: Another look at the face-in-the-crowd effect.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,27, 563–566.
Hansen, C. H., &Hansen, R. D. (1988). Finding the face in the crowd: An anger superiority effect.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,54, 917–924.
Horstmann, G. (in press). Preattentive face processing: What do visual search experiments with schematic faces tell us?Visual Cognition.
Horstmann, G., &,Bauland, A. (2006). Search asymmetries with real faces: Testing the anger-superiority effect.Emotion,6, 193–207.
Horstmann, G., Borgstedt, K., &Heumann, M. (2006). Flanker effects with faces may depend on perceptual as well as emotional differences.Emotion,6, 28–39.
Jonides, J., &Mack, R. (1984). On the cost and benefit of cost and benefit.Psychological Bulletin,96, 29–44.
LeDoux, J. E. (1998).The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. London: Phoenix.
Leppänen, J. M., &Hietanen, J. K. (2003). Affect and face perception: Odors modulate the recognition advantage of happy faces.Emotion,3, 315–326.
Lundqvist, D., Esteves, F., &Öhman, A. (1999). The face of wrath: Critical features for conveying facial threat.Cognition & Emotion,13, 691–711.
Nothdurft, H.-C. (1993). Faces and facial expressions do not pop out.Perception,22, 1287–1298.
Öhman, A., Lundqvist, D., &Esteves, F. (2001). The face in the crowd revisited: A threat advantage with schematic stimuli.Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,80, 381–396.
Purcell, D. G., Stewart, A. L., &Skov, R. B. (1996). It takes a confounded face to pop out of a crowd.Perception,25, 1091–1108.
Treisman, A. M., &Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention.Cognitive Psychology,12, 97–136.
Treisman, A. [M.], &Gormican, S. (1988). Feature analysis in early vision: Evidence from search asymmetries.Psychological Review,95, 15–48.
Treisman, A. [M.], &Souther, J. (1985). Search asymmetry: A diagnostic for preattentive processing of separable features.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,114, 285–310.
White, M. (1995). Preattentive analysis of facial expressions of emotion.Cognition & Emotion,9, 439–460.
Wolfe, J. M. (1998). Visual search. In H. Pashler (Ed.),Attention (pp. 13–73). London: University College London Press.
Wolfe, J. M. (2001). Asymmetries in visual search: An introduction.Perception & Psychophysics,63, 381–389.
Yiend, J., &Mathews, A. (2001). Anxiety and attention to threatening pictures.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,54A, 665–681.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Horstmann, G., Scharlau, I. & Ansorge, U. More efficient rejection of happy than of angry face distractors in visual search. Psychon Bull Rev 13, 1067–1073 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213927
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03213927