Abstract

BORTOLOTI, Renato; DE ROSE, Júlio C.  and  GALVAO, Olavo de Faria. Time to detection of arbitrary stimuli equivalent to facial expressions. Temas psicol. [online]. 2005, vol.13, n.1, pp. 52-60. ISSN 1413-389X.

Experimental studies have shown that college students detect a threatening face among friendly faces faster than a friendly face among threatening ones. The present study verified whether a similar effect would be obtained in the detection of symbols of faces expressing emotion. College students formed three equivalence classes, each comprised of a face expressing either anger, disgust, or happiness, and three arbitrary pictures, so that the pictures became symbols of the faces. In a subsequent test, trials displayed three different symbols of a particular face, together with a symbol of another face. Participants were instructed to select the odd stimulus in all trials, as quickly as possible. Selections of the symbols equivalent to the disgusted face, among symbols of the happy face, were faster than selections of the symbols of the happy face among symbols of the disgusted face. Time spent to select the odd stimulus in other combinations was not different. Stimuli related to disgust tend to capture more attention. The faster detection of symbols related to the disgusted face indicates that this effect can be transferred through equivalence relations.

Keywords : Stimulus equivalence; Transfer of functions; Facial expressions.

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