Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness
Natural scenes provide important affective cues for observers to avoid danger. From an adaptationist perspective, such cues affect the behavior of the observer and shape the evolution of the observer’s response. It is evolutionarily significant for individuals to extract affective information from t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-10-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01521/full |
| _version_ | 1819151778212478976 |
|---|---|
| author | Zhengang eLu Bingbing eGuo Anne eBoguslavsky Marcus eCappiello Weiwei eZhang Ming eMeng |
| author_facet | Zhengang eLu Bingbing eGuo Anne eBoguslavsky Marcus eCappiello Weiwei eZhang Ming eMeng |
| author_sort | Zhengang eLu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Natural scenes provide important affective cues for observers to avoid danger. From an adaptationist perspective, such cues affect the behavior of the observer and shape the evolution of the observer’s response. It is evolutionarily significant for individuals to extract affective information from the environment as quickly and as efficiently as possible. However, the nearly endless variations in physical appearance of natural scenes present a fundamental challenge for perceiving significant visual information. How image-level properties, such as contrast and color, influence the extraction of affective information leading to subjective emotional perception is unclear. On the one hand, studies have shown that visual perception and emotional perception seem to interact with each other at the earliest stages in cortical processing. On the other hand, it is important for high-level subjective ratings to be invariant to low-level visual properties. Using a psychophysical approach and signal detection theory, we tested how contrast and color influenced fearfulness ratings of a set of natural scene pictures that varied in contents and in levels of fearfulness. Image contrast influenced perceptual sensitivity but not the decision criterion of fearfulness rating, whereas color affected the decision criterion but not perceptual sensitivity. These results show that different low-level visual features contribute independently to either sensitivity or decision criterion in affective perception, suggesting distinct interactions between visual cognition and affective processing. Specifically, our naturalistic approach using a novel stimulus set, combined with signal detection theory, has demonstrated two dissociable types of cognitive mechanisms underlying how image-level properties leverage the extraction of affective information in natural vision. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T14:38:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dfe727a75f9445398f9bf7c7bfbcaa8d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T14:38:48Z |
| publishDate | 2015-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-dfe727a75f9445398f9bf7c7bfbcaa8d2022-12-21T18:22:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-10-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.01521144563Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulnessZhengang eLu0Bingbing eGuo1Anne eBoguslavsky2Marcus eCappiello3Weiwei eZhang4Ming eMeng5Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeUniversity of California, RiversideUniversity of California, RiversideDartmouth CollegeNatural scenes provide important affective cues for observers to avoid danger. From an adaptationist perspective, such cues affect the behavior of the observer and shape the evolution of the observer’s response. It is evolutionarily significant for individuals to extract affective information from the environment as quickly and as efficiently as possible. However, the nearly endless variations in physical appearance of natural scenes present a fundamental challenge for perceiving significant visual information. How image-level properties, such as contrast and color, influence the extraction of affective information leading to subjective emotional perception is unclear. On the one hand, studies have shown that visual perception and emotional perception seem to interact with each other at the earliest stages in cortical processing. On the other hand, it is important for high-level subjective ratings to be invariant to low-level visual properties. Using a psychophysical approach and signal detection theory, we tested how contrast and color influenced fearfulness ratings of a set of natural scene pictures that varied in contents and in levels of fearfulness. Image contrast influenced perceptual sensitivity but not the decision criterion of fearfulness rating, whereas color affected the decision criterion but not perceptual sensitivity. These results show that different low-level visual features contribute independently to either sensitivity or decision criterion in affective perception, suggesting distinct interactions between visual cognition and affective processing. Specifically, our naturalistic approach using a novel stimulus set, combined with signal detection theory, has demonstrated two dissociable types of cognitive mechanisms underlying how image-level properties leverage the extraction of affective information in natural vision.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01521/fullColorPsychophysicsemotioncontrastSignal detection theory |
| spellingShingle | Zhengang eLu Bingbing eGuo Anne eBoguslavsky Marcus eCappiello Weiwei eZhang Ming eMeng Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness Frontiers in Psychology Color Psychophysics emotion contrast Signal detection theory |
| title | Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness |
| title_full | Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness |
| title_fullStr | Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness |
| title_short | Distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness |
| title_sort | distinct effects of contrast and color on subjective rating of fearfulness |
| topic | Color Psychophysics emotion contrast Signal detection theory |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01521/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zhengangelu distincteffectsofcontrastandcoloronsubjectiveratingoffearfulness AT bingbingeguo distincteffectsofcontrastandcoloronsubjectiveratingoffearfulness AT anneeboguslavsky distincteffectsofcontrastandcoloronsubjectiveratingoffearfulness AT marcusecappiello distincteffectsofcontrastandcoloronsubjectiveratingoffearfulness AT weiweiezhang distincteffectsofcontrastandcoloronsubjectiveratingoffearfulness AT mingemeng distincteffectsofcontrastandcoloronsubjectiveratingoffearfulness |