Evolutionary Evidence – Visual Search Paradigm - The ...

The visual search paradigm is one method to investigate how fear focuses our attention on a threat and prepares us for action to avoid the threat. Skiptocontent Chapter8:Fear,Anxiety,andStress Thevisualsearchparadigmisonemethodtoinvestigatehowfearfocusesourattentiononathreatandpreparesusforactiontoavoidthethreat.Inthevisualsearchparadigm,participantsareinstructedtofindspecifictargetobjectslocatedamongmanycontrolordistractortargets.Forinstance,inthetwotopphotosinFigure6,participantswouldbelookingfortheanger(left)orjoy(right)faceamongalltheneutralfaces(calledthe“faceinthecrowdeffect”).Generally,studieshavefoundthatpeoplearefastertoidentifyandmoreaccuratelyidentifytheoneangerfaceinthecrowdthantheonejoyfulface(Pinkhametal.,2010).Further,participantsarefasterandmoreaccurateinidentifyingangerexpressionsthanjoyexpressionsincrowdsofemotionalcrowds–asshowninthebottomtwophotos.Similarfindingswereobtainedwhenparticipantswerefastertolocateasnake/spideramongneutralobjectsandslowertolocateaneutralobjectamongsnakes/spiders(Öhman,Flykt,etal.,2001).Together,thesefindingsaretakenasevidenceofevolutionarypreparednesstoactinresponsetopotentialthreatstooursurvival. Figure6 VisualSearchParadigmfromPinkhametal.(2010) Adaptedfrom“Thefaceinthecrowdeffect:Angersuperioritywhenusingrealfacesandmultipleidentities. ,”byA.E.Pinkham,M.Griffin,R.Baron,N.J. Sasson,andR.C.Gur,2010,Emotion, 10(1), p.143.(https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017387). Copyright2010byAmericanPsychologicalAssociation.   Basicemotionsresearchersbelievethataspartofthefearemotionalexperience,thebrain,particularlytheamygdala,isbiasedtoquicklyidentifythreateningfacialexpressionsinotherpeople,suchasanangerfacialexpression.Thisthreat-advantagebiasmeansthatovertime,ourbrainsandvisualsystemsevolvedtoquicklyandaccuratelyidentifythreatinfacialexpressionsandinanimalsourenvironment(Horstmann&Bauland,2006;Öhman,Lundqvist,etal.,2001;Öhman&Mineka,2001).Yet,Pinkhametal.(2010)findingssuggestthismechanismoperatesbestwhenthethreateningfacialexpressionoccursinaneutralversusemotionalcrowd,suggestingthatmismatchedemotionalexpressionscoulddistractouramygdalafromquicklyandaccuratelydetectingthethreat.   Previous/nextnavigation Previous:Evolutionary/BasicEmotionEvidenceforFear Next:EvolutionaryEvidence–BackwardMaskingandNonconsciousProcessingofThreateningStimuli Backtotop License PsychologyofHumanEmotion.byMichelleYarwoodislicensedunderaCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike4.0InternationalLicense,exceptwhereotherwisenoted. ShareThisBook ShareonTwitter