恐惧情绪面孔影响不同年龄个体时距知觉的研究

The Influence of Fear Faces on The Perception of Duration Among Different Age Groups

为证实相对中性面孔,恐惧面孔时距知觉会出现延长效应且不受年龄因素调节,本研究采用时距两分任务(400ms短标准时距和1600ms长标准时距)考察5岁组、8岁组及成年组被试的恐惧面孔和中性面孔时距知觉的表现。结果发现,对于所有被试,相比中性面孔,恐惧面孔时距两分任务心理物理函数偏左,两分点显著下降,且不受年龄因素调节。这意味着相对中性面孔,恐惧面孔时距知觉存在延长效应,且这种效应不受年龄因素调节。

Theories of emotion are quite united in the belief that expressions of emotion are efficient ways to communicate information about emotional states and to facilitate the choice of adaptive behavior by perceivers.For example,when animals detect signs of aggressiveness in their conspecifics,they prepare to escape or defend themselves.From this perspective,one function of the perception of emotion is the production of adaptive action.Given the important link between the perception of emotional expression and action,it is surprising that the role of emotion in time perception has thus far been neglected in empirical research.An examination of the few studies that have addressed influences of emotion in time perception reveals inconsistent and contradictory results.Some studies demonstrated no effect of emotion,whereas other studies demonstrated inconsistent influences,including temporal overestimation and underestimation.According to developmental studies,children as young as 3 months of age are able to distinguish emotional expressions.For example,studies have shown that the expression of happiness is distinguished from neutral expressions as early as 3 months and that the expression of fear is distinguished from neutral expressions as early as 7 months.At the end of the first year,children give meaning to and use facial expressions to interpret others’future actions and to guide their own behavior.A series of recent studies has also demonstrated accurate temporal perception in children as young as 5 years old,suggesting that the internal clock is functional at an early age.If the perception of fear faces induces high levels of arousal and if this has adaptive effects on temporal perception,the overestimation of duration represented by angry faces should be observed in very young children and should show relatively little change over development.The lengthening effect of negative emotional faces on the estimation of time interval is one of the important phenomena that researchers have been paying close attention to.This lengthening effect has been attributed to the behavioral response of people to environmental adaptation which is a primary phenomenon.Fear is one of the four basic emotions of human beings and belongs to high alert negative emotions.In order to confirm that the effect of fear faces on duration estimation is prolonged and not adjusted by age,temporal bisection task(400 milliseconds short standard duration and 1600 milliseconds long standard duration)was used to investigate the effects of fear faces and neutral faces in five-year-old,eight-year-old and adult subjects.The results showed that the psychophysical functions were shifted toward the left in all participants for the fear faces compared to the neutral faces,with a significant lowering of the Bisection Point,suggesting that the stimulus duration was judged to last longer for the emotional stimuli,and the trend was not adjusted by age.This implies that there is still a lengthening effect of duration estimation of fear face relative to neutral face,and this effect is not adjusted by age.