scholarly journals Professional actors demonstrate variability, not stereotypical expressions, when portraying emotional states in photographs

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuan Le Mau ◽  
Katie Hoemann ◽  
Sam H. Lyons ◽  
Jennifer M. B. Fugate ◽  
Emery N. Brown ◽  
...  

AbstractIt is long hypothesized that there is a reliable, specific mapping between certain emotional states and the facial movements that express those states. This hypothesis is often tested by asking untrained participants to pose the facial movements they believe they use to express emotions during generic scenarios. Here, we test this hypothesis using, as stimuli, photographs of facial configurations posed by professional actors in response to contextually-rich scenarios. The scenarios portrayed in the photographs were rated by a convenience sample of participants for the extent to which they evoked an instance of 13 emotion categories, and actors’ facial poses were coded for their specific movements. Both unsupervised and supervised machine learning find that in these photographs, the actors portrayed emotional states with variable facial configurations; instances of only three emotion categories (fear, happiness, and surprise) were portrayed with moderate reliability and specificity. The photographs were separately rated by another sample of participants for the extent to which they portrayed an instance of the 13 emotion categories; they were rated when presented alone and when presented with their associated scenarios, revealing that emotion inferences by participants also vary in a context-sensitive manner. Together, these findings suggest that facial movements and perceptions of emotion vary by situation and transcend stereotypes of emotional expressions. Future research may build on these findings by incorporating dynamic stimuli rather than photographs and studying a broader range of cultural contexts.

2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Peper ◽  
Simone N. Loeffler

Current ambulatory technologies are highly relevant for neuropsychological assessment and treatment as they provide a gateway to real life data. Ambulatory assessment of cognitive complaints, skills and emotional states in natural contexts provides information that has a greater ecological validity than traditional assessment approaches. This issue presents an overview of current technological and methodological innovations, opportunities, problems and limitations of these methods designed for the context-sensitive measurement of cognitive, emotional and behavioral function. The usefulness of selected ambulatory approaches is demonstrated and their relevance for an ecologically valid neuropsychology is highlighted.


Author(s):  
Harald Schoen ◽  
Sigrid Roßteutscher ◽  
Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck ◽  
Bernhard Weßels ◽  
Christof Wolf

This concluding chapter summarizes the main findings of the preceding chapters in light of the model of contextual effects on voter behavior. Accordingly, the processes of communication and politicization are of key importance for contextual effects. By implication, we cannot take for granted that contextual features exert sizable effects on voters’ opinion formation and behavior in each and every case. Findings about contextual effects are also context-sensitive and thus do not lend themselves to generalization by default. These observations suggest that context plays a nuanced and conditional role in voting behavior. Exploring it further should be a focal topic of future research on political behavior and democratic politics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Fakhoury ◽  
Claudine Burton-Jeangros ◽  
Idris Guessous ◽  
Liala Consoli ◽  
Aline Duvoisin ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In Europe, knowledge about the social determinants of health among undocumented migrants is scarce. The canton of Geneva, Switzerland, implemented in 2017–2018 a pilot public policy aiming at regularizing undocumented migrants. We sought to test for associations between self-rated health, proven eligibility for residence status regularization and social and economic integration. Methods This paper reports data from the first wave of the Parchemins Study, a prospective study whose aim is to investigate the effect of residence status regularization on undocumented migrants’ living conditions and health. The convenience sample included undocumented migrants living in Geneva for at least 3 years. We categorized them into those who were in the process of receiving or had just been granted a residence permit (eligible or newly regularized) and those who had not applied or were ineligible for regularization (undocumented). We conducted multivariate regression analyses to determine factors associated with better self-rated health, i.e., with excellent/very good vs. good/fair/poor self-rated health. Among these factors, measures of integration, social support and economic resources were included. Results Of the 437 participants, 202 (46%) belonged to the eligible or newly regularized group. This group reported better health more frequently than the undocumented group (44.6% versus 28.9%, p-value < .001), but the association was no longer significant after adjustment for social support and economic factors (odds ratio (OR): 1.12; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.67–1.87). Overall, better health was associated with larger social networks (OR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.04–2.64). This association remained significant even after adjusting for health-related variables. Conclusion At the onset of the regularization program, access to regularization was not associated with better self-rated health. Policies aiming at favouring undocumented migrants’ inclusion and engagement in social networks may promote better health. Future research should investigate long-term effects of residence status regularization on self-rated health.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019394592110135
Author(s):  
Sohye Lee ◽  
Catherine Pantik ◽  
Sree Duggirala ◽  
Ruth Lindquist

The purpose of this study was to examine individuals’ knowledge of cardiovascular risk-related biometric numbers and to compare self-reported and investigator-measured numbers in a convenience sample of adults in the Midwest region. Sociodemographic data and personal knowledge of cardiovascular risk-related biometric numbers were assessed using self-reported questionnaires. Investigators conducted health assessments to obtain biometric numbers. Among the 224 participants, participants’ reported knowledge about their cardiovascular risk-related biometric numbers was low, especially for high-density lipoprotein and fasting blood glucose levels. Participants’ knowledge was associated with education level and the recency of their last healthcare visit for health assessment. We found statistically significant mean differences between self-reported and investigator-measured blood pressure, and weight. This study found that there were discrepancies between self-reported and investigator-measured cardiovascular risk-related numbers. Future research is needed to develop educational interventions to improve personal knowledge of cardiovascular risks.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Albuquerque ◽  
Daniel S. Mills ◽  
Kun Guo ◽  
Anna Wilkinson ◽  
Briseida Resende

AbstractThe ability to infer emotional states and their wider consequences requires the establishment of relationships between the emotional display and subsequent actions. These abilities, together with the use of emotional information from others in social decision making, are cognitively demanding and require inferential skills that extend beyond the immediate perception of the current behaviour of another individual. They may include predictions of the significance of the emotional states being expressed. These abilities were previously believed to be exclusive to primates. In this study, we presented adult domestic dogs with a social interaction between two unfamiliar people, which could be positive, negative or neutral. After passively witnessing the actors engaging silently with each other and with the environment, dogs were given the opportunity to approach a food resource that varied in accessibility. We found that the available emotional information was more relevant than the motivation of the actors (i.e. giving something or receiving something) in predicting the dogs’ responses. Thus, dogs were able to access implicit information from the actors’ emotional states and appropriately use the affective information to make context-dependent decisions. The findings demonstrate that a non-human animal can actively acquire information from emotional expressions, infer some form of emotional state and use this functionally to make decisions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Feliciano Villar ◽  
Rodrigo Serrat ◽  
Michael W. Pratt

Abstract Research on later-life generativity has promoted a new view of older persons that, far from the traditional images of disability, dependence and frailty, recognises their capacities, and potential to continue growing, while underlining their participation and contributions to families, communities and society. The goal of this study was to carry out a scoping review on later-life generativity, the first one conducted on this topic as far as we know, to show how studies in this area have evolved, which aspects of generativity in later life have been studied, and the methodological and epistemological approaches that are dominant in this area of inquiry. Our scoping review shows that research into generativity in later life has grown steadily over the past 30 years, and particularly during the last decade. However, our results also show how such growing interest has focused on certain methodological approaches, epistemological frameworks and cultural contexts. We identify four critical gaps and leading-edge research questions that should be at the forefront of future research into generativity in later life, gaps that reflect biases in the existing literature identified in the study. These are classified as methodological, developmental, contextual and ‘dark-side’ gaps.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-170
Author(s):  
Ellen Simon ◽  
Chloé Lybaert

Abstract As a result of growing mobility and migration flows, the number of non-native speakers of Dutch in Belgium and the Netherlands have gradually increased over the past decades and so have the number of people enrolled in Dutch as a Second Language education. While there is huge variation in the profiles of these non-native speakers, they almost exclusively have in common that their Dutch sounds, in some way and at some stage, accented. In line with worldwide trends in foreign language teaching, the pronunciation goal in Dutch as a Second Language education has shifted from native-like to intelligible. Indeed, the notion of intelligibility has become prominent in language teaching and assessment. In this paper, we discuss the complexity of this notion and set it off against related terms like ‘comprehensibility’ and ‘foreign accent’. Through a literature review, we argue that intelligibility is an interactional and context-sensitive phenomenon: it is as much a responsibility of the speaker as it is of the listener or conversational partner(s) in general, whose attitudes will have an impact on the intelligibility and thus on the conversational flow and communicative success. After reviewing literature on the intelligibility of Dutch as a Second Language, we end by formulating some promising lines for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes C. Ehrenthal ◽  
Johannes Zimmermann ◽  
Katja Brenk-Franz ◽  
Ulrike Dinger ◽  
Henning Schauenburg ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Attachment insecurity is a prominent risk factor for the development and course of psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders. The Experiences in Close Relationships - Revised (ECR-R) questionnaire is a widely used self-report to assess attachment related anxiety and avoidance. However, its length has the potential to restrict its use in large, multi-instrument studies. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief version of the ECR-R, and provide norm values for the German population. Methods A screening version of the original ECR-R was developed through principal components analysis of datasets from several previous studies. In a representative sample of 2428 randomly selected individuals from the German population, we compared fit indices of different models by means of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). We investigated the convergent validity of the screening version in an independent convenience sample of 557 participants. Correlations between the short and the full scale were investigated in a re-analysis of the original German ECR-R evaluation sample. Results CFA indicated a satisfactory model fit for an eight-item version (ECR-RD8). The ECR-RD8 demonstrated adequate reliability. The subscales correlated as expected with another self-report measure of attachment in an independent sample. Individuals with higher levels of attachment anxiety, but especially higher levels of attachment avoidance were significantly more likely to not be in a relationship, across all age groups. Correlations between the short and the full scale were high. Conclusions The ECR-RD8 appears to be a reliable, valid, and economic questionnaire for assessing attachment insecurity. In addition, the reported population-based norm values will help to contextualize future research findings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Croucher ◽  
Wendy Powell ◽  
Matt Dicks ◽  
Brett Stevens ◽  
Vaughan Powell

Virtual reality is increasingly used in rehabilitation and can provide additional motivation when working toward therapeutic goals. However, a particular problem for patients regards their ability to plan routes in unfamiliar environments. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how visual cues, namely embedded context-sensitive attractors, can guide attention and walking direction in VR, for clinical walking interventions. This study was designed using a butterfly as the embedded context-sensitive attractor, to guide participant locomotion around the clinical figure of eight walk test, to limit the use of verbal instructions. We investigated the effect of varying the number of attractors for figure of eight path following, and whether there are any negative impacts on perceived autonomy or workload. A total of 24 participants took part in the study and completed six attractor conditions in a counterbalanced order. They also experienced a control VE (no attractors) at the beginning and end of the protocol. Each VE condition lasted a duration of 1 min and manipulated the number of attractors to either singular or multiple alongside, the placement of turning markers (virtual trees) used to represent the cones used in clinical settings for the figure of eight walk test. Results suggested that embedded context-sensitive attractors can be used to guide walking direction, following a figure of eight in VR without impacting perceived autonomy, and workload. However, there appears to be a saturation point, with regards to effectiveness of attractors. Too few objects in a VE may reduce feelings of intrinsic motivation, and too many objects in a VE may reduce the effectiveness of attractors for guiding individuals along a figure of eight path. We conclude by indicating future research directions, for attractors and their use as a guide for walking direction.


2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy L. Anderson

The goals of Healthy People 2010 are to increase the quality of life and life expectancy, and eliminate health disparities. There is no clear picture, however, if these goals are being addressed by African American adolescents. This study was conducted to evaluate health status of African American adolescents aged 13-19 in Florida’s Big Bend Region. Healthy People 2010 objectives were consulted for the evaluation. Responses from a convenience sample of 35 participants (63% female, 34% male) who completed a survey comprised of questions based on Likert scale are summarized here. The results show that the African American adolescents are engaging in some physical activity; however, only about half of them reported maintaining a healthy body weight. The majority of the adolescents reported avoiding smoking, but fewer adolescents reported avoiding drinking alcohol. Only a small percentage of the adolescents reported that their friends carried a gun or knife to school within the last 30 days; the percentage increased when the adolescents were asked if their friends got into a fist fight within the last 30 days. The adolescents sampled in this study have only achieved the Healthy People 2010 objectives in one of the health concern areas examined herein. It is also important to note that there are substantial gender-based disparities. In order to meet all Healthy People 2010 objectives, health education and promotion must be increased. Future research should explore different aspects of health status of adolescents in general, and further examine gender disparities and contributing factors.


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