Positive Faces Research Articles

The impact of stimulus format and presentation order on social working memory updating.

Emotional faces and words have been extensively employed to examine cognitive emotional processing including social working memory, which plays a pivotal role in social interactions. However, it remains unclear which exact role these two stimulus formats play in updating specific emotional content, such as positive or negative information. Therefore, the current study examined the differences in working memory updating (WMU) of negative, neutral, and positive faces (Experiment 1) and words (Experiment 2), using a classic two-back paradigm with an event-related potential technique. In both experiments, emotional stimuli were presented in the same or different-valence order to further determine whether presentation order can also influence the WMU of specific emotional content. Our results showed that both stimulus format and presentation order play a role: (a) while faces showed an affective bias [larger P2 and late positive potential (LPP) for negative and positive faces than for neutral faces], words showed a negativity bias (larger LPP for negative words than both neutral and positive words); (b) While faces showed better performance with same-valence order, words showed better performance with different-valence order. Taken together, our findings indicate that, even if faces and words can contain the same emotional information, they impact social WMU differently.

The effect of Previous Dental Treatments on Dental Anxiety in Children Aged 4-12

Objective: The patient’s cooperation is crucial for the success of dental treatment. In addition to previous treatments, various factors such as socio-economic status, age, gender, and oral hygiene can influence dental anxiety. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of previous dental treatment experiences on dental anxiety. Material and Method: Children aged 4-12 years who applied for dental treatment, along with their families, participated in the study. During their children’s dental treatment, families completed a survey form containing sociodemographic data and information about previous dental treatments. Before the procedure, children were shown five pictures from the Facial Image Scale and asked to choose the picture that best represented their current emotion. The degree of cooperation during the procedure was assessed using the Frankl Behavior Scale. The interaction of patients’ dental anxiety with various factors was analyzed. ANOVA post-hoc analysis and Tukey’s test were used for multiple comparisons of normally distributed variables among continuous variation variables. Kruskal-Wallis post-hoc analysis and the Mann-Whitney U test were used for variables that did not follow a normal distribution. Results: Dental anxiety was found to be higher in girls and younger age groups, although this difference was not statistically significant. According to the Frankl scale, children who attended routine dental check-ups and had previous dental treatment experiences had higher scores, regardless of whether the previous treatment was favorable or unfavorable. Based on the Facial Image Scale, it was observed that children with no previous dental treatment selected more positive faces, whereas children with negative dental treatment experiences selected more negative faces. Conclusion: Previous dental treatment experiences and routine check-ups significantly impact reducing dental anxiety by familiarizing the child with the clinical environment and the dentist, as well as by reducing the need for invasive dental procedures. Therefore, to eliminate the negative effects of dental anxiety, preventive dental treatments should be emphasized by bringing children to regular dental check-ups at an early age, thus minimizing the need for invasive dental treatments.

Acquisition and generalization of emotional and neural responses to faces associated with negative and positive feedback behaviours.

Faces can acquire emotional meaning by learning to associate individuals with specific behaviors. Here, we investigated emotional evaluation and brain activations toward faces of persons who had given negative or positive evaluations to others. Furthermore, we investigated how emotional evaluations and brain activation generalize to perceptually similar faces. Valence ratings indicated learning and generalization effects for both positive and negative faces. Brain activation, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), showed significantly increased activation in the fusiform gyrus (FG) to negatively associated faces but not positively associated ones. Remarkably, brain activation in FG to faces to which emotional meaning (negative and positive) was successfully generalized was decreased compared to neutral faces. This suggests that the emotional relevance of faces is not simply associated with increased brain activation in visual areas. While, at least for negative conditions, faces paired with negative feedback behavior are related to potentiated brain responses, the opposite is seen for perceptually very similar faces despite generalized emotional responses.

Face Threatening-Acts In Indonesia Fourth Vice Presidential Candidate Election Debate (2024): Pragmatics Study

The research investigates face-threatening acts (FTAs) in the fourth vice-presidential election debate in Indonesia, applying a pragmatic approach to analyze how strategies and acts used impact the candidates’ electability and credibility. This study also focused on the word choices during the debate that can be considered rude or put the other candidates in an uncomfortable situation and how this affects the flow of debate. Qualitative procedures including display data, quoting, and authentication were used in the data analysis process. By applying the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson, the study classifies and divides the FTAs into positive and negative faces. According to the study, the three candidates regularly use strategies meant to harm the public perceptions of their opponents in order to influence voter opinions and affect election results. The research offers insights into the purpose of communication tactics in political debates and their broader impact on political discourse and election outcomes by comprehending the dynamics of FTAs in this high-stakes environment.

FACE AND POLITENESS IN JAVANESE MULTILINGUAL INTERACTION

Javanese culture is unique since its orientation is to group togetherness, but the language displays the social distance between the conversers. Using a sociolinguistic perspective, this study investigated how Javanese people manage their concerns about self-other and positive-negative face. Linguistic data from a Javanese culture webinar held by Yogyakarta Palace were analysed using the explanatory sequential mixed-method design. The results show that from the most frequent to the least frequent, Javanese people are concerned about enhancing other-positive face (44.34%), other-negative face (39.15%), self-negative face (11.32%), and self-positive face (5.19%). Complimenting, greeting, showing sympathy, and expressing gratitude are their ways to show their concern for the other-positive face. Meanwhile, employing indirect requests and honorifics in Javanese Krama are strategies to enhance the other-negative face. People’s tendency to please others, show respect, and avoid conflict is the underlying reason for their great concern for others’ positive and negative faces. Their reluctance to enhance their self-face is due to their inclination to shame and guilt. Such face management is highly influenced by the cultural norms and values upheld by society. In a forum delivered in Bahasa Indonesia, their strong Javanese identity is represented by the insertion of Javanese honorifics showing deference.

FACE DETECTION SYSTEM USING CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS: A REVIEW

Implementing a facial recognition system can help in identifying or verifying the identity of a person from a digital image. Accurate attendance records are critical to classroom assessment. However, manual attendance tracking can lead to errors, missed students, or duplicate records. The facial recognition attendance system includes facial recognition technology that recognizes and verifies an employee's facial features and automatically records attendance. The facial liveliness detection part is based on CNN, which creates a 3D model of the detected face to distinguish between real and fake images. The attendance system is written in Python and the user interface is designed using the WebView library. The main goal of facial recognition is to identify individuals, either individually or collectively. The number of positive faces may vary depending on the technology used for face recognition. Keywords: Face Recognition Attendance System, CNN Algorithm.

Generalized anxiety disorder and selective attention: An unsuccessful replication of Yiend et al., (2015) in a student population

ABSTRACT Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is believed to affect attention (Stein, M. B., & Sareen, J. (2015). Generalized anxiety disorder. New England Journal of Medicine, 373(21), 2059–2068. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMcp1502514; Yiend, J., Mathews, A., Burns, T., Dutton, K., Fernández-Martín, A., Georgiou, G. A., Luckie, M., Rose, A., Russo, R., & Fox, E. (2015). Mechanisms of selective attention in generalized anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychological Science, 3(5), 758–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702614545216). Previous literature has found that selective attention is changed when someone perceives threatening stimuli, such as an angry face, and that those with anxiety disorders, may have a heightened or delayed response to threatening stimuli (Richards, H. J., Benson, V., Donnelly, N., & Hadwin, J. A. (2014). Exploring the function of selective attention and hypervigilance for threat in anxiety. Clinical Psychology Review, 34(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2013.10.006; Stevens, C., & Bavelier, D. (2012). The role of selective attention on academic foundations: A cognitive neuroscience perspective. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2, S30–S48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2011.11.001), which may alter how fast a presented task is completed (Yiend et al., 2015). The present study aimed to reproduce findings by Yiend et al. (2015), which identified an unexpected pattern in those with GAD: faster disengagement from angry faces compared to positive (happy, neutral) faces. The present study recruited a larger (nonclinical) sample from a student population to achieve greater statistical power. None of the findings reported by Yiend and colleagues (Experiment 1; 2015) were replicated in a student sample. The implications are discussed.

Face-threatening and Face-saving Speech Acts of Teachers: A Discourse Analysis of Classroom Interactions

Politeness is fundamental to social order production and social interaction precondition. However, it is inevitable to encounter impoliteness in communication that could threaten a person's self-image. Hence, this study aims to explore the face-threatening acts of teachers in terms of positive and negative faces, as well as how they exhibit face-saving acts in classroom talks. This study employed a discourse analysis approach to investigate how teachers use language to threaten or save students' face needs during classroom interactions. The researchers collected the data from the video recordings taken by researchers from the twelve (12) research subjects' classroom discussions with their students at La Filipina National High School in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. The data was analyzed using the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) and revealed that the teachers' face-threatening acts in terms of positive face are an insult, disapproval, criticism, bringing bad news, threat, non-cooperation, and unleashed negative emotions. While in terms of the negative face, they employed reminders, accepting compliments, giving offers and suggestions. The analysis also showed that teachers exhibited face-saving acts (Bald- on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record) directly and indirectly by telling jokes or giving hints. These study findings contribute to our understanding of the complex nature of face-to-face communication in the classroom and provide insights into how teachers threaten or manage face needs in their interactions with students.

Characteristics of attentional bias in adolescents with major depressive disorders: differentiating the impact of anxious distress specifier.

No consistent conclusion has been reached regarding the attentional bias characteristics of adolescents with major depressive disorders (MDD), and unexamined co-occurring anxiety distress may contribute to this inconsistency. We enrolled 50 MDD adolescents with anxiety distress, 47 MDD adolescents without anxiety distress and 48 healthy adolescents. We measured attentional bias using a point-probe paradigm during a negative-neutral emotional face task. Reaction time, correct response rate and attentional bias value were measured. MDD adolescents did not show a negative attentional bias; MDD adolescents with anxiety distress exhibited longer reaction time for negative and neutral stimuli, lower correct response rate for negative stimuli. Hamilton Anxiety Scale scores were positively correlated with reaction time, negatively correlated with correct response rate, and not significantly correlated with attentional bias value. The cross-sectional design hinders causal attribution, and positive emotional faces were not included in our paradigm. Negative attentional bias is not a stable cognitive trait in adolescents with MDD, and avoidance or difficulty in disengaging attention from negative emotional stimuli may be the attentional bias characteristic of MDD adolescents with anxiety distress.

The effect of training to target cognitive biases towards social rejection in eating disorders.

This study examined the effect of cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) training in Korean women with eating disorders (EDs). Sixty-three women with EDs participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group where they received six sessions of CBM-I training (n=31) in addition to treatment-as-usual or were put on a waiting list (n=32). Participants' interpretation and attention biases, emotion regulation, affect, and ED psychopathology were assessed at baseline, end-of-intervention (4weeks), and follow-up (8weeks). Participants who completed the CBM-I training displayed greater reductions in negative interpretation bias (Δη2 =0.107) and emotion dysregulation (Δη2=0.085) with medium to large effect sizes compared to the control group, which were maintained from baseline to follow-up. Disengagement from negative faces and a focus on positive faces was found in the intervention group with a moderate effect size at the end-of-intervention (Δη2=0.090). Both intervention and control groups showed improvements in ED psychopathology. Baseline neuroticism was positively correlated with CBM-I effect. The results suggest that modifying interpretation bias towards ambiguous social stimuli might be an effective adjuvant treatment to reduce negative expectations of social situations and improve emotion regulation in women with bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa.

Altered mechanisms of adaptation in social anxiety: differences in adapting to positive versus negative emotional faces

ABSTRACT Social anxiety is characterised by fear of negative evaluation and negative perceptual biases; however, the cognitive mechanisms underlying these negative biases are not well understood. We investigated a possible mechanism which could maintain negative biases: altered adaptation to emotional faces. Heightened sensitivity to negative emotions could result from weakened adaptation to negative emotions, strengthened adaptation to positive emotions, or both mechanisms. We measured adaptation from repeated exposure to either positive or negative emotional faces, in individuals high versus low in social anxiety. We quantified adaptation strength by calculating the point of subjective equality (PSE) before and after adaptation for each participant. We hypothesised: (1) weaker adaptation to angry vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety, (2) no difference in adaptation to angry vs happy faces in individuals low in social anxiety, and (3) no difference in adaptation to sad vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety. Our results revealed a weaker adaptation to angry compared to happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety (Experiment 1), with no such difference in individuals low in social anxiety (Experiment 1), and no difference in adaptation strength to sad vs happy faces in individuals high in social anxiety (Experiment 2).

Subjectively salient faces differ from emotional faces: ERP evidence

The self-face is processed differently than emotional faces. A question arises whether other highly familiar and subjectively significant non-self faces (e.g. partner’s face) are also differentiated from emotional faces. The aim of this event-related potential (ERP) study was to investigate the neural correlates of personally-relevant faces (the self and a close-other’s) as well as emotionally positive (happy) and neutral faces. Participants were tasked with the simple detection of faces. Amplitudes of N170 were more negative in the right than in the left hemisphere and were not modulated by type of face. A similar pattern of N2 and P3 results for the self-face and close-other’s face was observed: they were associated with decreased N2 and increased P3 relative to happy and neutral faces. However, the self-face was preferentially processed also when compared to a close-other’s face as revealed by lower N2 and higher P3 amplitudes. Nonparametric cluster-based permutation tests showed an analogous pattern of results: significant clusters for the self-face compared with all other faces (close-other’s, happy, neutral) and for close-other’s face compared to happy and neutral faces. In summary, the self-face prioritization was observed, as indicated by significant differences between one’s own face and all other faces. Crucially, both types of personally-relevant faces differed from happy faces. These findings point to the pivotal role of subjective evaluation of the saliency factor.

Heightened response to positive facial cues as a potential marker of resilience following childhood adversity

ABSTRACT Background: Childhood maltreatment profoundly influences social and emotional development, increasing psychiatric risk. Alterations in the implicit processing of threat-related cues following early abuse and neglect represent a marker of mental health vulnerability. Less is known about how early adversity influences the perception of positive social cues, despite their central role in establishing and maintaining social interactions and their association with better mental health outcomes. Methods: The sample consisted of 42 children and adolescents with substantiated childhood maltreatment experiences and 32 peers (mean age 13.3), matched on age, pubertal status, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and cognitive ability. A computerised experimental task assessed the perceived emotional intensity of positive (happy) and negative (fearful) facial expressions. Mental health symptoms were measured via self- and parental reports, and perceived social support was self-reported. Results: The experience of abuse and neglect was associated with heightened perceived intensity of positive facial cues. Cross-sectional post-hoc moderation and mediation analyses, employing a model-building approach, revealed that in maltreatment-exposed participants: (i) their increased response to positive facial cues was associated with lower symptoms; (ii) the presence of social support accounted for their heightened perceived intensity of positive facial cues; (iii) the presence of social support putatively contributed to lower symptoms by increasing the perceived intensity of positive facial cues. No group differences in perceived intensity of negative expressions were observed. Conclusions: These findings provide fresh insight into how positive faces are processed following maltreatment experience in childhood. Maltreatment experience was found to be associated with heightened perceived intensity of happy faces, which in turn was associated with better mental health and greater levels of social support. This suggests that heightened saliency of positive emotions acts protectively in children with maltreatment experience.

The enhanced emotional negativity bias in parents of atypically developing children: Evidence from an event-related potentials study.

Parents of atypically developing children such as parents of children with ASD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and intellectual disability experience higher levels of parenting stress than parents of typically developing children. However, whether they possess enhanced emotional negativity bias was unclear. In the present study, 28 parents of typically developing children and 29 parents of atypically developing children were recruited. The emotional Stroop task and event-related potentials were adopted to measure their emotional negativity bias, in which participants were required to respond to the borders' color of face pictures. Behaviorally, the impact of parenting stress on emotional negativity bias was not found. At the electrophysiological level, the P2 differential amplitude (negative minus positive) was greater in parents of atypically developing children than in parents of typically developing children, reflecting an enhanced early attentional bias toward negative faces. N2 amplitude for the emotionally negative face was smaller than the positive face in parents of atypically developing children, indicating a too weak attentional control to inhibit distractors. Furthermore, sustained attention to negative faces was observed in parents of atypically developing children, that is, the emotionally negative face elicited greater frontal P3 (300 ~ 500 ms) than the positive faces. These findings revealed that compared to parents of typically developing children, parents of atypically developing children owned an enhanced emotional negativity bias at the early and late stages of information processing.

Amygdala and cortical gamma-band responses to emotional faces are modulated by attention to valence.

The amygdala might support an attentional bias for emotional faces. However, whether and how selective attention toward a specific valence modulates this bias is not fully understood. Likewise, it is unclear whether amygdala and cortical signals respond to emotion and attention in a similar way. We recorded gamma-band activity (GBA, > 30 Hz) intracranially in the amygdalae of 11 patients with epilepsy and collected scalp recordings from 19 healthy participants. We presented angry, neutral, and happy faces randomly, and we denoted one valence as the target. Participants detected happy targets most quickly and accurately. In the amygdala, during attention to negative faces, low gamma-band activity (LGBA, < 90 Hz) increased for angry compared with happy faces from 160 ms. From 220 ms onward, amygdala high gamma-band activity (HGBA, > 90 Hz) was higher for angry and neutral faces than for happy ones. Monitoring neutral faces increased amygdala HGBA for emotions compared with neutral faces from 40 ms. Expressions were not differentiated in GBA while monitoring positive faces. On the scalp, only threat monitoring resulted in expression differentiation. Here, posterior LGBA was increased selectively for angry targets from 60 ms. The data show that GBA differentiation of emotional expressions is modulated by attention to valence: Top-down-controlled threat vigilance coordinates widespread GBA in favor of angry faces. Stimulus-driven emotion differentiation in amygdala GBA occurs during a neutral attentional focus. These findings align with a multi-pathway model of emotion processing and specify the role of GBA in this process.

Lietuvos ir JAV politikų debatuose taikomos nemandagumo strategijos

The aim of this study is to reveal which impoliteness strategies politicians use during electoral TV debates in Lithuania and the USA. To achieve this aim, four debates were analyzed using a quantitative analysis method. The total duration of the debates analyzed was 360 minutes. The study revealed that politicians in Lithuania and the USA primarily use indirect impoliteness strategies, directed towards positive or negative faces of their opponents. Analysis also revealed that politicians in the USA use direct impoliteness strategies 2.4 times more often than politicians in Lithuanian TV debates. The strategy of off-record impoliteness was used the least during debates in each country. Analysis of how impoliteness strategies are expressed revealed that politicians in the USA mostly express impoliteness as statements, while Lithuanian politicians express it using various language resources: presenting it as their opinion, doubt, etc.

The positive effects of symbolized characteristics of Luojing cross pattern decoration on public anxiety disorders based on social psychology

BackgroundIn recent years, the incidence of anxiety disorders has been increasing. The cause of anxiety disorders is not clear, but it may be related to genetic factors, personality characteristics, cognitive processes, etc. In order to study the positive impact of anxiety disorder among people in intangible cultural heritage, the social behavior of Luojing cross pattern symbolization and the emotional face of people with anxiety disorder were identified.Subjects and MethodsThe study used task-state fMRI technology, which required participants to complete the task of emotional face recognition during the MRI scan. The study compared the difference in activation of brain regions under positive and negative emotional faces between the GAD patient group and the healthy control group. SPSS24.0 was used for data analysis.ResultsIn positive mood, compared with healthy controls, the brain regions with significantly enhanced activation in the anxiety disorder group included the right posterior central gyrus (t=3.02, P&lt;0.05), the right superior temporal gyrus (t=3.86, P&lt;0.05), and the right caudate nucleus (t=4.02, P&lt;0.05). The brain regions with significantly weakened activation in the anxiety disorder group included the right superior frontal gyrus (t=3.11, P&lt;0.05), the right medial frontal lobe (t=4.01, P&lt;0.05), the left middle frontal gyrus (t=2.69, P&lt;0.05), the left insula (t=3.08, P&lt;0.05), the left anterior cingulate gyrus (t=2.38, P&lt;0.05), the left hippocampus (t=3.48, P&lt;0.05), etc.ConclusionsWhen the Luojing cross pattern ornament was symbolized, the mood of the people with anxiety disorders was more positive. This helps in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders from a social perspective.AcknowledgementA School-level Educational Teaching Research Project at Shanghai Business School in 2023 (No.SBS-2023-XJJG-07); Shanghai Cultural and Educational Integration project in 2023.

The Generalized Cluster Complex: Refined Enumeration of Faces and Related Parking Spaces

The generalized cluster complex was introduced by Fomin and Reading, as a natural extension of the Fomin-Zelevinsky cluster complex coming from finite type cluster algebras. In this work, to each face of this complex we associate a parabolic conjugacy class of the underlying finite Coxeter group. We show that the refined enumeration of faces (respectively, positive faces) according to this data gives an explicit formula in terms of the corresponding characteristic polynomial (equivalently, in terms of Orlik-Solomon exponents). This characteristic polynomial originally comes from the theory of hyperplane arrangements, but it is conveniently defined via the parabolic Burnside ring. This makes a connection with the theory of parking spaces: our results eventually rely on some enumeration of chains of noncrossing partitions that were obtained in this context. The precise relations between the formulas counting faces and the one counting chains of noncrossing partitions are combinatorial reciprocities, generalizing the one between Narayana and Kirkman numbers.

A Contrastive Analysis of Disagreement Speech act Used by Native Speakers of English and Iraqi EFL Learners in light of Politeness Strategies

Introduction: Effective communication often involves expressing disagreement while maintaining social harmony, which is influenced by cultural and linguistic norms. Native speakers of English typically employ various politeness strategies in their disagreement speech acts. However, Iraqi EFL learners may navigate these strategies differently due to variations in cultural norms and language proficiency. Therefore, the current study aimed to contrastively analyze the way Iraqi EFL learners and native English speakers perform the speech act of disagreement in light of politeness. Methodology: In this regard, a discourse completion test (DCT) was administered to 66 participants, comprising 33 Iraqi EFL students studying English as a foreign language (TEFL) and 33 native English speakers. The DCT was made up of scenarios that mirrored real-life circumstances in order to provoke responses from people who disagreed with them. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of politeness was employed to analyze participants’ utterances. Results: The findings indicated that while expressing disagreement with people of higher, participants in both groups were more concerned with keeping their interlocutors’ positive faces. Furthermore, the study findings indicated that despite differences in the two groups of participants, Iraqi EFL learners utilized positive indirect politeness strategies more frequently than English native speakers. On the other hand, English native speakers applied direct and negative politeness strategies. Conclusion: Generally, the findings indicated that both groups tended to use the most direct type of disagreement as the social distance and power relation decreased.

Temporal characteristics of emotional conflict processing: the modulation role of attachment styles

Theoretical account of attachment proposed that individual differences in adult attachment styles play a key role in adjusting balance between affective evaluation and cognitive control. Yet, little is known about the temporal characteristics of emotional conflict processing modulated by attachment styles. Accordingly, the present study used event-related potentials (ERP) and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) combined with an emotional face-word Stroop task to investigate the temporal dynamics of attachment-related cognitive-affective patterns in emotional conflict processing. The ERP results demonstrated multiple-process of emotional conflict modulated by attachment styles. In early sensory processing, positive faces captured avoidant attachment individuals' attention as reflected in greater P1, while the same situation led to greater N170 in secure and anxious individuals. Crucially, impairment in conflict-monitoring function was found in anxious individuals as reflected by the absence of interference effect on N450, leading to impaired ability of inhibitory control as indicated by decreased slow potential. In contrast, avoidant individuals showed greater slow potential for inhibiting emotional interference. Furthermore, MVPA revealed that the corresponding time window for conflict monitoring was found for emotional distractors decoding rather than congruency decoding in the anxious attachment group. Convergent results from ERPs and MVPA indicated that the deficits in emotional conflict monitoring and resolution among anxious individuals might be due to the excessive approach to emotional distractors, as they habitually use emotional evaluation rather than cognitive control. In summary, the present study provides electrophysiological evidence that attachment styles modulated emotional conflict processing, which highlights the contribution of attachment to social information processing.