Psychology ETDs
Publication Date
Spring 5-6-2022
Abstract
The progression of affective science in the last few decades has brought with it a sub-field concerned with whether task-irrelevant facial expressions of emotion guide selective attention against our will. Such attentional bias is intuitively plausible, yet numerous recent studies were unable to observe it, motivating a meta-analysis (Chapter 2). Although the overall effect of 2.4 ms from 152 cases (g = .0823) was significantly greater than zero, its small size indicates a barely detectable phenomenon with no practical significance. A plausible explanation for this lack of attentional bias for emotional faces was tested in Chapter 3; even infrequently presented emotions could not bias attention. Also, attended emotional faces could not further modulate spatial attention (Chapter 4). Emotional faces can be processed automatically yet are virtually unable to bias spatial attention. Potential explanations include the questionable validity of emotional face cues and the mechanisms underlying attentional bias.
Degree Name
Psychology
Level of Degree
Doctoral
Department Name
Psychology
First Committee Member (Chair)
Eric Ruthruff
Second Committee Member
James Cavanaugh
Third Committee Member
Jeremy Hogeveen
Fourth Committee Member
Joshua M. Carlson
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Recommended Citation
Maxwell, Joshua W.. "A Meta-Analysis and Investigation of Attention Bias for Facial Expressions of Emotion." (2022). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/psy_etds/358
