2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Influence of facial expressions, gaze direction, and social anxiety on memory of unfamiliar faces
| Project/Area Number |
25885100
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Experimental psychology
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| Research Institution | Doshisha University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
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| Keywords | 顔認知 / 表情 / 視線 / 社会不安 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This research investigated memory of unfamiliar faces and how it is influenced by facial expression, direction of gaze, and observers’ level of social anxiety (SA). 86 participants were initially asked to view and memorize images of faces displaying either happy or angry expressions with direct or averted gaze. In the subsequent recognition phase, those previously shown faces and additional distractor faces were displayed with neutral expressions, and participants judged if they had seen them before. Participants were divided into high or low SA groups. Regardless of gaze, recognition for faces studied with angry expressions was significantly less accurate than for those studied with happy expressions, and this tendency was present only for individuals with higher levels of SA. The finding suggests that those individuals experienced elevated vigilance for threatening features of angry expressions, which may have disrupted their processing of identity-relevant features of the faces.
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| Free Research Field |
認知心理学
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