Mean emotion from multiple facial expressions can be extracted with limited attention: Evidence from visual ERPs

Ji, Luyan; Rossi, Valentina

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.01.022

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…It has been shown previously that mean emotion from multiple facial expressions could be extracted with limited attention or awareness (Fischer & Whitney, 2011;Haberman & Whitney, 2011;Ji, Rossi, & Pourtois, 2018). In agreement with these earlier results, the current study also unambiguously confirms that averaging of multiple facial expressions can operate efficiently even though the stimulus presentation was kept short (i.e., 500 ms) and the display contained as many as 16 different faces.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Ensemble representation for multiple facial expressions: Evidence for a capacity limited perceptual process

Chen

Loeys

2018

Journal of Vision

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We tested the processing capacity of establishing ensemble representation for multiple facial expressions using the simultaneous-sequential paradigm. Each set consisted of 16 faces conveying a variable amount of happy and angry expressions. Participants judged on a continuous scale the perceived average emotion from each face set (Experiment 1). In the simultaneous condition, the 16 faces were presented concurrently; in the sequential condition, two sets, each containing eight faces, were presented successively. Results showed that judgments varied depending on the number of happy versus angry faces contained in the sets and were sensitive at the single trial level to the perceived mean emotion intensity (based on postexperiment ratings), providing evidence of a genuine mean representation rather than the mere use of a single face or enumeration. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated Experiment 1, but implemented a different response format (binary choices) and added masks following each display, respectively. Importantly, in all three experiments, performance was consistently better in the sequential than in the simultaneous condition, revealing a limited-capacity process. A set of control analyses ruled out the use of enumeration or mere subsampling by the participants to perform the task. Collectively, these results indicate that participants could readily extract mean emotion from multiple faces shown concurrently in a set, but this process is best conceived as being capacity limited.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Ensemble representation for multiple facial expressions: Evidence for a capacity limited perceptual process

Chen

Loeys

2018

Journal of Vision

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“…A breadth of evidence provides support for ensemble coding as a robust visual mechanism that operates independently of limited capacity resources over a variety of visual features. Previous research shows that ensemble percepts are available even with brief stimulus presentation durations (Haberman & Whitney, 2007;Chong & Treisman, 2003) and without relying on attentional ( Ji, Rossi, & Pourtois, 2018;Alvarez & Oliva, 2008) and working memory (Bauer, 2017;Epstein & Emmanouil, 2017) resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ensemble Statistics Can Be Available before Individual Item Properties: Electroencephalography Evidence Using the Oddball Paradigm

Epstein

Emmanouil

2021

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Behavioral studies have shown that statistical properties of object groups are perceived accurately with brief exposure durations. This finding motivated the hypothesis that ensemble perception occurs rapidly in vision. However, the precise timing of ensemble perception remains unclear. Here, we used the superior temporal resolution of electroencephalography to directly compare the timing of ensemble processing to that of individual object processing. The P3b was chosen as a particular component of interest, as it is thought to measure the latency of stimulus evaluation. Participants performed a simple “oddball” task in which sets of 51 lines with varied orientations sequentially flashed briefly on the display. In these sequences, there was a 20% chance of an individual oddball, wherein one marked object tilted clockwise, and a 20% chance of an ensemble oddball, wherein the average orientation of the set tilted 20% clockwise. In counterbalanced blocks, participants were instructed to respond to either individual or ensemble oddballs. ERP analysis was performed to test the timing of this processing. At parietal electrodes, P3b components were found for both individual and ensemble oddballs. Ensemble P3b components were found to occur significantly earlier than individual P3b components, as measured with both 50% area latency and 50% onset latency. Using multivariate pattern analysis, ensemble oddball trials were classifiable from standard trials significantly earlier in their timecourse than individual oddball trials. Altogether, these results provide compelling evidence that ensemble perception occurs rapidly and that ensemble properties can be available earlier than individual object properties.

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“…This research has revealed that ensemble processing mechanisms operate independently from traditional single-item processing (Cant, Sun, & Xu, 2015;Im & Halberda, 2013) as well as across higher-and lower-level stimulus domains (Haberman, Brady, & Alvarez, 2015;Sama, Nestor, & Cant, 2019). Furthermore, ensemble perception appears to require minimal levels of attention (Chong & Treisman, 2005;Ji, Rossi, & Pourtois, 2018;Khayat & Hochstein, 2018;Peng, Kuang, & Hu, 2019;Utochkin & Tiurina, 2014; but see Jackson-Nielsen, Cohen, & Pitts, 2017). Like gist information from scenes, ensemble information is extracted quickly, as fast as 50 ms, with little change for exposure times up to 1,000 ms (Chong & Treisman, 2003; but see Whiting & Oriet, 2011, for a more conservative estimate).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global and local interference effects in ensemble encoding are best explained by interactions between summary representations of the mean and the range

Sama

Srikanthan

Nestor

et al. 2021

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Through ensemble encoding, the visual system compresses redundant statistical properties from multiple items into a single summary metric (e.g., average size). Numerous studies have shown that global summary information is extracted quickly, does not require access to single-item representations, and often interferes with reports of single items from the set. Yet a thorough understanding of ensemble processing would benefit from a more extensive investigation at the local level. Thus, the purpose of this study was to provide a more critical inspection of global-local processing in ensemble perception. Taking inspiration from Navon (Cognitive Psychology, 9(3), 353-383, 1977), we employed a novel paradigm that independently manipulates the degree of interference at the global (mean) or local (single item) level of the ensemble. Initial results were consistent with reciprocal interference between global and local ensemble processing. However, further testing revealed that local interference effects were better explained by interference from another summary statistic, the range of the set. Furthermore, participants were unable to disambiguate single items from the ensemble display from other items that were within the ensemble range but, critically, were not actually present in the ensemble. Thus, it appears that local item values are likely inferred based on their relationship to higher-order summary statistics such as the range and the mean. These results conflict with claims that local information is captured alongside global information in summary representations. In such studies, successful identification of set members was not compared with misidentification of items within the range, but which were nevertheless not presented within the set.

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Mean emotion from multiple facial expressions can be extracted with limited attention: Evidence from visual ERPs

Cited by 19 publications

References 60 publications

Ensemble representation for multiple facial expressions: Evidence for a capacity limited perceptual process

Ensemble representation for multiple facial expressions: Evidence for a capacity limited perceptual process

Ensemble Statistics Can Be Available before Individual Item Properties: Electroencephalography Evidence Using the Oddball Paradigm

Global and local interference effects in ensemble encoding are best explained by interactions between summary representations of the mean and the range

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