scholarly journals Stereotypical Processing of Emotional Faces: Perceptual and Decisional Components

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Fitousi
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection Theory ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Current Effort ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Emotional Faces ◽  
Dimensional Interaction ◽  
General Recognition Theory ◽  
Recognition Theory ◽  
General Recognition ◽  
And Gender

People tend to associate anger with male faces and happiness or surprise with female faces. This angry-men-happy-women bias has been ascribed to either top-down (e.g., well-learned stereotypes) or bottom-up (e.g., shared morphological cues) processes. The dissociation between these two theoretical alternatives has proved challenging. The current effort addresses this challenge by harnessing two complementary metatheoretical approaches to dimensional interaction: Garner's logic of inferring informational structure and General Recognition Theory—a multidimensional extension of signal detection theory. Conjoint application of these two rigorous methodologies afforded us to: (a) uncover the internal representations that generate the angry-men-happy-women phenomenon, (b) disentangle varieties of perceptual (bottom-up) and decisional (top-down) sources of interaction, and (c) relate operational and theoretical meanings of dimensional independence. The results show that the dimensional interaction between emotion and gender is generated by varieties of perceptual and decisional biases. These outcomes document the involvement of both bottom-up (e.g., shared morphological structures) and top-down (stereotypes) factors in social perception.

Multidimensional Signal Detection Theory

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Gregory Ashby ◽  
Fabian A. Soto
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection ◽  
Signal Detection Theory ◽  
Detection Theory ◽  
Response Alternative ◽  
Perceptual Independence ◽  
Multidimensional Signal ◽  
General Recognition Theory ◽  
Multivariate Probability Distribution ◽  
Recognition Theory ◽  
General Recognition

Multidimensional signal detection theory is a multivariate extension of signal detection theory that makes two fundamental assumptions, namely that every mental state is noisy and that every action requires a decision. The most widely studied version is known as general recognition theory (GRT). General recognition theory assumes that the percept on each trial can be modeled as a random sample from a multivariate probability distribution defined over the perceptual space. Decision bounds divide this space into regions that are each associated with a response alternative. General recognition theory rigorously defines and tests a number of important perceptual and cognitive conditions, including perceptual and decisional separability and perceptual independence. General recognition theory has been used to analyze data from identification experiments in two ways: (1) fitting and comparing models that make different assumptions about perceptual and decisional processing, and (2) testing assumptions by computing summary statistics and checking whether these satisfy certain conditions. Much has been learned recently about the neural networks that mediate the perceptual and decisional processing modeled by GRT, and this knowledge can be used to improve the design of experiments where a GRT analysis is anticipated.

On the Internal Representation of Numerical Magnitude and Physical Size

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Fitousi
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection ◽  
Signal Detection Theory ◽  
Numerical Cognition ◽  
Internal Representation ◽  
Numerical Magnitude ◽  
Semantic Relationship ◽  
Physical Size ◽  
General Recognition Theory ◽  
Recognition Theory ◽  
General Recognition

A nascent idea in the numerical cognition literature – the analogical hypothesis ( Pinel, Piazza, Bihan, & Dehaene, 2004 ) – assumes a common noisy code for the representation of symbolic (e.g., numerals) and nonsymbolic (e.g., numerosity, physical size, luminance) magnitudes. The present work subjected this assumption to various tests from the perspective of General Recognition Theory (GRT; Ashby & Townsend, 1986 ) – a multidimensional extension of Signal Detection Theory ( Green & Swets, 1966 ). The GRT was applied to the dimensions of numerical magnitude and physical size with the following goals: (a) characterizing the internal representation of these dimensions in the psychological space, and (b) assessing various types of (in)dependence and separability governing the perception of these dimensions. The results revealed various violations of independence and separability with Stroop incongruent, but not with Stroop congruent stimuli. The outcome suggests that there are deep differences in architecture between Stroop congruent and incongruent stimuli that reach well beyond the semantic relationship involved.

Racial prototypicality cues exacerbate racial bias in pain perception from the bottom up and the top down

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Drain ◽  
Azaadeh Goharzad ◽  
Jennie Qu-Lee ◽  
Jingrun Lin ◽  
Peter Mende-Siedlecki
Keyword(s):  
Pain Perception ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Facial Structure ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Pain Outcomes ◽  
And Gender

Racial disparities in pain care may stem, in part, from a perceptual source. While perceptual disruptions in recognizing painful expressions on Black faces have been demonstrated under tightly-controlled conditions (e.g., controlling for low-level stimulus differences in luminance and facial structure, using all male stimuli), these effects may be exacerbated by cues to racial prototypicality. Indeed, both bottom-up (e.g., skin tone, facial structure) and top-down (e.g., stereotype associations between race and gender) factors related to racial prototypicality moderate social perception, with some evidence pointing towards deleterious consequences in the domain of health. Here, we assessed whether these factors shape racial bias in pain perception: we examined the effect of racially prototypical features in Experiments 1 and 2 and target gender in a meta-analysis across five additional experiments. Overall, darker skin tones were associated with more stringent pain perception and more conservative treatment, while racially prototypic structural features exacerbated racial bias in pain outcomes. Moreover, target gender reliably moderated the effect of race on pain outcomes: racial biases in both pain perception and treatment were larger for male (versus female) targets. Taken together, these data demonstrate the overall robustness of racial bias in pain perception and its facilitation of gaps in treatment, but also the extent to which these biases are moderated by both bottom-up and top-down factors related to racial prototypicality.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document