Facial Mimicry and Emotion Consistency: Influences of Memory and Context

Kirkham, Alexander James; Hayes, Amy E.; Pawling, Ralph; Tipper, Steven P.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145731

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…The fragility of such a retrieval process has been observed in other research where effects are not always observed. For example, Pawling et al (2017) found that retrieval of prior emotional states following context change was possible whereas Kirkham, Hayes, Pawling, & Tipper, (2015) found that it was not. In Experiment 4, we continue to pursue the endurance of fluency effects following context change by reducing the number of objects to lessen memory load.…”

Section: Embodied Accounts Of Emotional Memory Encoding Propose That Visuomotormentioning

confidence: 99%

Motion fluency and object preference: Robust perceptual but fragile memory effects.

Flavell¹,

McKean²,

Tipper³

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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In 8 experiments, we investigated motion fluency effects on object preference. In each experiment, distinct objects were repeatedly seen moving either fluently (with a smooth and predictable motion) or disfluently (with sudden and unpredictable direction changes) in a task where participants were required to respond to occasional brief changes in object appearance. Results show that 1) fluent objects are preferred over disfluent objects when ratings follow a moving presentation, 2) there is some evidence that object-motion associations can be learnt with repeated exposures, 3) sufficiently potent motions can yield preference for fluent objects after a single viewing, and 4) learnt associations do not transfer to situations where ratings follow a stationary presentation, even after deep levels of encoding. Episodic accounts of memory retrieval predict that emotional states experienced at encoding might be retrieved along with the stimulus properties. Though object-motion associations were repeatedly paired, there was no evidence for emotional reinstatement when objects were seen stationary. This indicates that the retrieval process is a critical limiting factor when considering visuomotor fluency effects on behaviour. Such findings have real-world consequences. For example, a product advertised with high perceptual fluency might be preferred at the time, but this preference might not transfer to seeing the object on a shelf.

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Section: Embodied Accounts Of Emotional Memory Encoding Propose That Visuomotormentioning

confidence: 99%

Motion fluency and object preference: Robust perceptual but fragile memory effects.

Flavell¹,

McKean²,

Tipper³

et al. 2019

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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“…Therefore, the corrugator provides no evidence for retrieval of prior facial emotion states. This might not be entirely unexpected given that previous studies have also observed less robust effects in corrugator than in zygomaticus muscles (e.g., Cannon et al 2010 ) and have reported less robust mimicry of the socially costly expression of anger, than on less costly expressions, such as happiness and sadness (Bourgeois and Hess 2008 ; Hess and Bourgeois 2006 ; but see; Kirkham et al 2015 , for contrasting effects).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…However, the results are none-the-less interesting and suggest that further exploration of individual differences in the utilization, or outward expression of reactivated simulations is needed. It is also worth noting the contrasting results of a similar study (Kirkham et al 2015 ). Here, during encoding, participants viewed emotional faces who smiled and frowned in a manner that was either consistent or inconsistent with an emotional context, created by the simultaneous presentation of an emotional image alongside the face.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Incidental retrieval of prior emotion mimicry

et al. 2017

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When observing emotional expressions, similar sensorimotor states are activated in the observer, often resulting in physical mimicry. For example, when observing a smile, the zygomaticus muscles associated with smiling are activated in the observer, and when observing a frown, the corrugator brow muscles. We show that the consistency of an individual’s facial emotion, whether they always frown or smile, can be encoded into memory. When the individuals are viewed at a later time expressing no emotion, muscle mimicry of the prior state can be detected, even when the emotion itself is task irrelevant. The results support simulation accounts of memory, where prior embodiments of other’s states during encoding are reactivated when re-encountering a person.

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“…The relationship between faces and gazed images, which were learned during the gaze-cue phases, changed facial evaluations. Consistent with this possibility, Kirkham et al suggested that participants learn to trust or distrust people based on what they look at and how they respond [ 26 ]. They demonstrated that faces smiling for a positive scene were evaluated as more trustworthy than faces frowning for a positive scene, suggesting that encoding the face-scene consistency influenced perceived facial trustworthiness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Affective evaluation of images influences personality judgments through gaze perception

Shirai

Ogawa

2020

PLoS ONE

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Faces that consistently shifted the gaze to subsequent target locations in a gaze cueing task were chosen as being more trustworthy than faces that always looked away from the target, suggesting that the validity of a gaze cue influenced the viewers’ judgments regarding the trustworthiness of human faces. We investigated whether the gaze cueing effect and judgments regarding the personality conveyed by a face would be affected by the valence of a target. A face image moved its eyes to the left or the right, and an emotional target image (positive, negative, or neutral) appeared to left or right of the face. Participants had to indicate the location of this target by pressing a key. The target image was preceded by a face that shifted its gaze to the target image (valid cue), a face that directed its gaze to the opposite side (invalid cue), or a face that did not move its eyes (no cue). The perceived trustworthiness of the face was evaluated after the gaze-cueing task. Results showed that faces that looked at positive targets were evaluated as more trustworthy than faces that looked at negative targets. However, the valence of the targets did not affect trustworthiness ratings in invalid and no-cue conditions. We suggest that integrated information about the predictability of the gaze cue and the valence of the gaze target modulates impressions about the personality of the face.

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Facial Mimicry and Emotion Consistency: Influences of Memory and Context

Cited by 8 publications

References 26 publications

Motion fluency and object preference: Robust perceptual but fragile memory effects.

Motion fluency and object preference: Robust perceptual but fragile memory effects.

Incidental retrieval of prior emotion mimicry

Affective evaluation of images influences personality judgments through gaze perception

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