Photographic Stimuli Research Articles

Children's Attributions of Social Dominance from Facial Cues

KEATING, CAROLINE F., and BAI, DINA L. Children's Attributions of Social Dominance from Facial Cues. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1986, 57, 1269-1276. Ethological reports of animal dominance signals suggested that certain human brow and mouth gestures would influence the attributions of social dominance made by children. Stimulus photographs depicting adults with lowered brow expressions or without smiles were hypothesized to appear dominant relative to photographs showing adults with raised-brow expressions or with smiles, respectively. In addition, the cross-species record suggested that faces with physiognomic characteristics indicative of physical maturity would also look dominant. In tests of these hypotheses, children between 4 and 7 years of age heard stories describing social dominance interactions and chose photographs of adults who looked like the dominant characters described in the stories. The results confirmed predictions and indicated that human nonverbal dominance signaling may be patterned after that of other species.

Children and aging: attitudes, differentiation ability, and quantity and quality of contact.

The attitudes and age differentiation ability of forty-seven 3- to 5-year-old children toward pictures of older and younger people were assessed. In addition, cognitive performance on a seriation task as well as the quantity and quality of each child's contact with adults over 60 years of age were measured. Chi squares were performed by sex and age of stimulus photograph on the attitudinal questions. One of the chi squares reached significance on the age comparison and two on the sex comparison. In addition, sign tests were used to assess the direction of the trends on the questions, and both age and sex trends were significant at the .05 level with children being more likely to choose pictures of younger rather than older models and female rather than male models. Ability to correctly order pictures by age was significantly related (r = .53, p less than .001) to the seriation ordering task. Four of the 18 correlations between contact and attitudinal variables were significant and negative.

Dimensions of meaning in the perception of natural settings and their relationship to aesthetic response

This research identified, through the use of pairwise similarity judgements and a repertory grid methodology, the dimensions of meaning individuals use in discriminating among natural settings, and the relationship of these dimensions to aesthetic response. Randomly selected photographic stimuli were presented to 52 subjects in an experimental setting, using a micro-computer to control presentation of stimuli and tasks. Five dimensions of meaning were identified, with subjects differentially weighting these dimensions in terms of their salience to aesthetic response. It is argued that although the collative properties of experimentally derived stimuli are important in modifying arousal levels (Berlyne, 1971), when investigating “environments” and not “stimuli”, the perceived meaning or ecological properties (Berlyne, 1971) are additional and important determinants of aesthetic response.

Subjects' assessment of the processing demands of a series of orienting tasks

This study is designed to show that subject are able to assess the processing demands made by a series of orienting tasks. With the help of 6 psychology majors, 56 orienting questions were generated which could be applied to a black and white photograph of a human face. Using a systematic ranking and reduction procedure, 3 groups of 12 undergraduate majors then ordered all or a subset of these questions in terms of their relative processing demands, resulting finally in a representative set of 7 questions. Two further groups of 12 subjects then ranked these questions by considering them in relation to a photograph of a male and a female face respectively. Inter-subject agreement was demonstrated for both of these latter rankings which were also shown to be independent of the stimulus photograph used. In Part 2 of the study, the validity of the orienting question ranking was shown by using the questions in an incidental learning task. Significant positive correlations were found between processing demand and recognition scores and between processing demand and processing time. The results are discussed in relation to metacognition, introspection and consciousness.

The Use and Development of Sex-typed Language

Fifteen males and fifteen females in each of three age groups (children, adolescents, and adults) described a stimulus photograph for up to five minutes. These descriptions were transcribed and scored for the frequency of both language form and content categories. Analyses revealed significant sex differences in both the form and the content of spoken language. No evidence was found for the contention that sex-typed speech develops differently in male and female children. There were, however, significant age differences in speech form and content, independent of sex.

Attractiveness Ratings of Photographs of Blacks by Cruzans and Americans

Summary This study compared the attractiveness ratings of photographs of blacks by male and female Americans (n = 13) and Cruzans (n = 19), indigenous residents of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Females rated photographs higher than did males; photographs of females were rated higher than those of males. An interaction between culture and race of subject and sex of stimulus photograph was also evident. Male Cruzans rated male photographs significantly lower than the other three subject groups rated male and female photographs.

Children's Perceptions of Age and Physical Attractiveness

To determine the extent to which third- and fourth-grade children relate perceived age and perceived physical attractiveness when performing a ranking task using two sets of photographic facial stimuli, 40 elementary school children, 20 boys (aged 7 to 9 yr., M = 8.4 yr.) and 20 girls (aged 8 to 9 yr., M = 8.6 yr.) were asked to rank male and female photographs according to the dimensions of age and physical attractiveness. The rho of –.94 was negative; as perceived age increased perceived physical attractiveness decreased. This result is consistent with that of a previous study by Korthase and Trenholme in which adults and adolescents performed the same task. The pervasiveness of the stereotypes for age and physical attractiveness is evident. By the time children reach third or fourth grade, they have assimilated these biases.

The use of photographs as occupational stimuli

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential of photographic stimuli portraying well-known occupational activities in order to elicit vocationally relevant responses. Color photographs of persons performing occupational tasks or activities were the stimuli used to determine if aspects of the photographs would elicit discriminating responses. Eighty special education high school students were asked individually to respond to 15 color photographs. Out of a maximum of 1200 possible picture identifications, 35 responses were scored incorrect or unknown as to content. These results indicated 97.1% effectiveness in identifying the stimulus content by this population. Therefore, photographs consisting of occupational content can discriminate as stimuli by eliciting content-appropriate responses. Implications for further research and application of this finding are discussed.

Young children's perception of implied motion portrayal in still photographs.

120 kindergarten and first grade children were classified by developmental level based upon the results of the Purdue Conservation Test. Subsequently subjects judged whether or not the content of 64 static photographic pictorial stimuli (16 per subject) contained action. In addition to the still items, three types of implied motion cues were included as stimuli, frozen content, blurred content, and frozen content with blurred background. Main effects for both age and developmental level were found as well as interactions of each of the between-group variables with motion cues, the repeated factor. The results suggest that cognitive-developmental differences in young children as well as difference in age may explain how children come correctly to perceive dynamic elements in static photographs.

Physical Attractiveness and Assumptions about Social Deviance

The hypothesis that individuals would sort less attractive individuals into categories representing various forms of minor social deviance was tested. As predicted, both male and female subjects selected less attractive individuals of both sexes as more likely to be politically radical. Female homosexuals were also selected from less attractive stimulus photographs by both sexes whereas less attractive males were selected as homosexuals only by female subjects. Both sexes selected less attractive males as those with stereotypically feminine occupational aspirations, but did not attribute masculine occupational aspirations to unattractive females. In contrast to earlier studies, only the feminist-nonfeminist label failed to produce any categorization based on physical attractiveness. Findings were discussed in terms of the evaluation process as a measure of social desirability.

The interactive effects of counselor gender, physical attractiveness and status on client self-disclosure.

Investigated client self-disclosure and client perception of counselors (as expressed in counselor evaluations) as a function of the sex, attractiveness and status of the counselor, and the sex of the client. Counselor gender and attractiveness were established by means of stimulus photographs; counselor status was defined in terms of education and experience. Ss (160 college students) first rated their counselors on intelligence and empathy; they then completed Jourard's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire while role-playing clients in therapy. A four-factor between-Ss analysis of disclosure scores revealed that clients disclosed more of themselves to male than to female counselors when the counselors were high in either status or attractiveness. Results supported the hypothesis that the effect of counselor gender on client disclosure depends on an interaction of counselor gender with other counselor variables.

A note on the analysis of designs in which subjects receive each stimulus only once

In social psychological experiments, the manipulations of interest are often presented to subjects along with, or as part of, some stimulus. An example would be a manipulation of the verbal label associated with a stimulus photograph, in a person perception study. Ordinarily it is not possible for stimuli to be completely crossed with treatments because subjects cannot be exposed to any stimulus more than once. In such designs it is wise to counterbalance the assignment of stimuli to treatment conditions, but this gives rise to difficulties in the analysis of the experimental data. Data from such designs have frequently been misanalyzed in the published literature. This paper presents a method of constructing a counter-balancing scheme to simplify the analysis, and appropriate methods of analysis for both the simplified and the general case. It is emphasized that stimuli are generally best treated as a random factor in such designs, permitting increased generalizability, but the case where the stimulus factor is fixed is also considered.

Beautiful patients are good patients: evidence for the physical attractiveness stereotype in first impressions of patients

Previous research has reported the existence of a “beautiful is good” stereotype which implies that physically attractive individuals are assumed to possess more socially desirable characteristics and traits than physically unattractive individuals. To determine how physical attractiveness in patients influences first impressions, 289 health professionals reacted to prescaled stimulus photographs varying in age (young and mature), sex (male and female) and physical attractiveness (high and low). Each subject rated a single stimulus photo on fifteen 7-point bipolar personality characteristics. The results indicated that attractive stimulus persons were rated more favourably than unattractive persons on 12 of the 15 characteristics, thus confirming that a "beautiful is good" stereotype exists also among health professionals. Implications of these findings for the training and practice of health professionals are discussed.

The pupillometric response as a parameter of self-esteem

Investigated the relationship between self-esteem and the pupillometric response. Because a positive correlation has been established between pupillary dilation and positive interest in an observed stimulus, it was hypothesized that self-esteem would be correlated positively with the pupillometric response when Ss (N = 82) viewed photographs of themselves. Results indicated that self-esteem was related to the pupillometric response only for females. The relationship, however, was opposite to that predicted. The greater the pupillometric index, the poorer the self-esteem. It is suggested that in a situation in which implicit anxiety states are involved, sympathetic nervous system activity predominates over the interest value of the stimulus. It may be that females more than males are constitutionally prone to exhibit this sympathetic reaction and/or are more responsive to the body image properties inherent in the stimulus photographs.

Preference Study Based on “Like Best” Choices for Photographic Slides of Anglo, Black, and Chicano Children

216 third- and sixth-grade Anglo, black, and Chicano school children indicated preferences for photographic slides of unfamiliar boys and girls from the same grade levels and ethnicities. Patterns of choice emerged, that is, photographs of some children were preferred significantly more often than others. Since pattern of choice was independent of ethnicity of subjects, however, it was concluded that attractiveness of photographic stimuli is not uniquely different among children of these ethnicities.

Sonar Operator Performance Considerations in Passive Sonar Systems

Because of rapid developments in passive sonar technology, man-machine interface problems continue to demand human factors studies. This paper discusses display problems, operator variables, and research considerations. Data are presented from a recent study conducted by the authors comparing performance with photographic and static stimulus materials versus performance with dynamic CRT displays as the stimuli.

Person and Costume: Effects on the Formation of First Impressions

This exploratory study examined the effects of the stimulus person and the clothing worn by the stimulus person on the formation of first impressions, where the stimulus per son and the observer were female peers. A four‐by‐four factorial experiment was designed to measure the simultaneous effects of person‐costume photographic stimuli on the subjects' initial formation of athletic, social, and intellectual impressions. Each of 240 female uni versity students was randomly assigned to respond to one of 16 person‐costume photo graphs on an Impression Measure developed for this study using the semantic differential technique. Analysis of variance and correlation ratios measured the extent to which person and costume affected the initial formation of the impression dimensions studied. Costume exerted major influence on the formation of social impression, person had greater effect on athletic impression, and neither person nor costume had a significant effect on intellectual impression.

An extrapolation of the physical attractiveness and sex variables within the Byrne attraction paradigm

Twenty male and 20 female volunteer general psychology students were assigned to one of four treatment conditions in a totally randomized 2 by 2 ANOVA to test the hypothesis that subjects would perceive attractive strangers of the opposite sex as possessing attitudes similar to their own. Physical attractiveness was defined in terms of independent ratings via a Q sort of 74 male and 74 female yearbook pictures. The ANOVA yielded a significant main effect for attractiveness. These results were interpreted as supporting both the Byrne attraction paradigm and Newcomb's cognitive symmetry hypothesis. A follow-up experiment, using a population of adult apartment residents who were allowed to choose the stimulus photograph they felt to be most or least attractive, replicated the results obtained in Experiment I and revealed an even more pronounced attractiveness effect.

Clothin as a Nonverbal Communicator of Social and Political Attitudes

This research analyzed the responses of 96 subjects on a questionnaire in which they indicated (1) their own attitudes toward social and political issues, (2) their perceptions of attitudes of probable wearers of clothing shown in stimulus photographs, and (3) their own responses to types of clothing shown in the photographs. The subjects represented two types of students attending a large midwestern university: “conservatives,” oriented to the established American culture, and “liberals,” oriented to a counterculture. Data from the two types of subjects were contrasted and compared with data from a random sample of all students. Findings indicated that clothing communicated social and political attitudes among both types of students, those oriented to the established culture and those oriented to the counterculture. In addition, all subjects tended to like and wear types of clothes that they perceived to be consistent with their own attitudes. However, subjects with attitudes oriented to the countercul ture indicated more liking for and more wearing of clothing that reflected their own attitudes than did subjects oriented to the established culture.

Effects of eye position on person perception.

Stimulus photographs were prepared of models in 3 conditions, looking straight into the camera, looking downward, and looking sideways. Photographs were shown to 48 Ss who were told to assume they were interviewing the models for jobs. Ss rated models on 15 semantic differential scales and a salary scale, and answered some other brief questions. Eye position influenced response to models. Significant differences were found for 11 of 16 scales in comparisons of straight and downward gazes and for 2 of 16 scales in comparisons of straight and sideways gazes.