Emotion can be conceptualized by the dimensional account of emotion with the dimensions of valence and arousal. There is little discussion of the difference in discriminability across the dimensions. The present study hypothesized that any pair of emotional expressions differing in the polarity of both valence and arousal dimensions would be easier to distinguish than a pair differing in only one dimension. The results indicate that the difference in the dimensions did not affect participants' reaction time. Most pairs of emotional expressions, except those involving fear, were similarly discriminative. Reaction times to pairs with a fearful expression were faster than to those without. The fast reaction time to fearful facial expressions underscores the survival value of emotions.
Everyone has 24 hours in a day, but this does not feel the same for everyone. Time perception can be subjective and is affected by a wide range of factors. Studies have shown that presenting pictures with actions can bias observers’ performance in a duration reproduction task. Instead of watching pictures of actions, this research explored the effect of gesture posing on such a time perception bias. Sixty participants were assigned into either a watching or posing group. Compared with the corresponding baseline performance, participants overestimated time duration when viewing or posing pictures suggesting action. A corresponding underestimation was observed when the pictures or gestures suggested inaction. The role of physical gestures and their potential effect on time perception based on the embodiment account is discussed. Further investigation is also proposed to examine the role of the embodiment effect on subsecond time intervals.
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