Prior studies have identified diminished attending to faces, and in particular the eye region, in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which may contribute to the impairments they experience with emotion recognition and expression. The current study evaluated the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary effectiveness of an attention modification intervention designed to attenuate deficits in facial emotion recognition and expression in children with ASD. During the 10-session experimental treatment, children watched videos of people expressing different emotions with the facial features highlighted to guide children's attention. Eight children with ASD completed the treatment, of nine who began. On average, the children and their parents rated the treatment to be acceptable and helpful. Although treatment efficacy, in terms of improved facial emotion recognition (FER), was not apparent on task-based measures, children and their parents reported slight improvements and most parents indicated decreased socioemotional problems following treatment. Results of this preliminary trial suggest that further clinical research on visual attention retraining for ASD, within an experimental therapeutic program, may be promising. / PHD / Previous studies have shown that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show lower looking at faces, especially the eyes, which may lead to the difficulties they show with ability to recognize other’s emotions and express their own emotions. This study looked at a new treatment designed to decrease the difficulties in emotion recognition and expression in children with ASD. The study looked at whether the treatment is possible, acceptable to children and their parents, and successful in decreasing the difficulty with emotion recognition. During the 10-session treatment, children watched videos of people making different expressions. The faces of the actors in the videos were highlighted to show the children the important area to look at. Eight children with ASD completed the treatment, of nine who started the treatment. On average, the children and their parents said that the treatment is acceptable and helpful. While the treatment was not successful in improving ability to recognize emotions on other’s faces on several tasks, children and their parents reported slight improvements. In addition, most parents reported less problems with social skills and emotion recognition and expression after the treatment. These results suggest that more clinical research may be needed to evaluate usefulness of such attention retraining for children with ASD.

As generations have moved away from the farm, the population has become less aware of the practices behind the agriculture industry. However, people are becoming interested in how their food is produced. Since most of the population has not received an agriculture education, they look towards social media as their source of information. Social media has become a platform for sharing opinions and knowledge on certain topics. It has also been studied the perceptions of others can be influenced by emotionalizing and repeating stories related to the topic. Farmers and ranchers are now sharing their knowledge and experiences regarding agriculture through the convenience of social media. This leaves the question can a farmer’s use of social media influence a change in the public opinion of agriculture to a positive one. Therefore, this study focuses on the potential influence and impact farm-fluencers have on public perceptions of agriculture, through using social media.

Profundas transformações têm impactado não somente os processos interacionais e comunicacionais como, também, a forma de se fazer pesquisa em comunicação. Tal busca por um maior entendimento passa pela dinâmica científica e seus métodos no campo da comunicação. O avanço das metodologias mais ligadas à neurociência e suas aplicações em outras áreas do conhecimento, incluindo a comunicação, fez emergir um crescente interesse por pesquisadores do campo. Entretanto, a contribuição efetiva de tais metodologias, como a aferição no nível condutância de pele e o rastreamento ocular (eye tracking) ainda não é devidamente clara. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo aprofundar o diálogo interdisciplinar entre os campos da comunicação e neurociência, no que se refere ao emprego combinado das metodologias do eye tracking e de condutância de pele, a fim de se identificar possíveis contribuições e limitações dos métodos para a comunicação. Para tanto, foi conduzido um experimento com 46 universitários homens e mulheres, que tiveram seus dados de rastreamento ocular e nível de condutância de pele aferidos enquanto observavam um dos três tipos de abordagem (frame) em campanhas de segurança no trânsito (neutra, positiva e negativa). Os dados foram, então, analisados de forma quantitativa e qualitativa, e comparados com avaliações atitudinais autodeclaradas pelos participantes. Como principais resultados, houve diferenças entre três as abordagens consoante a forma e métrica de avaliação, sugerindo que a escolha por determinada forma de análise exerce um considerável efeito sobre os resultados. As considerações finais indicam que, apesar de apresentarem limitações, o eye tracking e a condutância de pele constituem métodos importantes e complementares às formas tradicionais de pesquisa em comunicação, ao conferirem uma maior objetividade e comparabilidade de informações relativas a aspectos atencionais e emocionais de conteúdos comunicacionais persuasivos. / Deep transformations have impacted not only on interactional and communication processes but also on the way of conducting research in communication. This search for a greater understanding goes through the scientific dynamics and its methods in the field of communication. The advancement of methodologies closely related to neuroscience and its applications in other areas of knowledge including applied social sciences - communication, has given rise to a growing interest by researchers in the field. However, the effective contribution of such methodologies, e.g. the measurement of the level of skin conductance and eye tracking, is not yet properly clear. The present research aims at deepening the interdisciplinary dialogue between the fields of communication and neuroscience regarding the combined use of the methodologies of eye tracking and skin conductance to identify possible contributions and limitations of methods for communication. In order to do so, an experiment was conducted with 46 male and female university students, who had their eye tracking data and skin conductance level collected while observing one of the three types of approach in traffic safety campaigns (neutral, positive and negative). The data were then analyzed in a quantitative and qualitative manner and compared with self-reported attitudinal answers by the participants. As the main results, there were differences between three approaches depending on the form and metric of evaluation, suggesting that the choice for a particular form of analysis exerts a considerable effect on the results. The final considerations indicate that despite limitations eye tracking and skin conductance are important and complementary methods to traditional forms of communication research, by providing greater objectivity and comparability of information regarding the attentional and emotional aspects of persuasive communication contents.

A popularização mundial da internet facilita para seus usuários o compartilhamento de informações, opiniões e experiências sobre diversas questões, como seus interesses, produtos, serviços e locais que visitaram ou que pretendem visitar. Nesse contexto, abre-se espaço para que as organizações também participem desse processo, de modo a conhecer melhor seus públicos e desenvolver ações para influenciar positivamente suas decisões; esse conjunto de práticas forma a chamada comunicação digital. Dentro da competição internacional para atrair investimentos, turistas, imigrantes e estimular exportações, muitos países passaram a adotar estratégias e práticas de criação e gestão de marcas a fim de melhorar suas imagens para obter melhores resultados nessa competição (inclusive o Brasil, através da Marca Brasil) e, com isso, a comunicação digital surge como um importante aliado. Entretanto, observa-se uma escassez de pesquisas que abordem a interdisciplinaridade desses assuntos. Assim, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa é avaliar a experiência de navegação de usuários estrangeiros nos conteúdos de comunicação digital no portal Visit Brasil. A pesquisa foi definida como qualitativa exploratória e, num primeiro momento, realizou entrevistas em profundidade com os profissionais envolvidos na criação e gerenciamento de tais práticas no caso brasileiro. Num segundo momento, foram entrevistados usuários estrangeiros dos conteúdos gerados para a Marca Brasil, contando também com as informações complementares obtidas pelo uso de um equipamento de eye tracking. Os dados qualitativos levantados serviram de base para uma análise de conteúdo. Os resultados obtidos fomentam a conclusão de que o portal Visit Brasil atinge seu objetivo de atrair potenciais turistas estrangeiros a visitar o país, mas falha em seu outro propósito de suprir as necessidades de informações turísticas desses indivíduos. Além disso, conclui-se que o portal não é capaz de influenciar mudanças na imagem do Rio de Janeiro como um destino turístico. Este estudo traz contribuições ao desenvolvimento de novos trabalhos sobre o assunto, além de fornecer aos profissionais envolvidos, e potencialmente às empresas do setor brasileiro de turismo, uma melhor compreensão e o descobrimento de novas oportunidades a respeito das práticas de comunicação digital desenvolvidas em prol da Marca Brasil e de seus resultados até o momento. / The worldwide popularization of the internet makes easier for its users to share information, opinions and experiences about several subjects, like their interests, products, services and places they\'ve been to or intend to go in the future. In this context, companies have the opportunity to also take part into this process, being able to know better their audiences and developing actions to positively influence their decisions, putting into practice digital marketing activities. As the international competition to attract investments, tourists, immigrants and stimulate exports continues to grow, many countries now adopt branding strategies and practices trying to improve their own images to get better results into this competition (including Brazil, through the Brazil Brand), and digital marketing is now an important ally for that attempt. However, studies that approach the interdisciplinarity of those subjects are scarce. Therefore, this study was developed to evaluate the experience of foreign users towards the digital marketing contents developed to the Brazil Brand through the website Visit Brasil. First, through a qualitative approach, in depth interviews were developed with professionals involved on the creation and management of those practices. After that, foreign users of the Brazil Brand online materials interacted with those contents, and these interactions were recorded and analyzed with an eye tracking equipment. In depth interviews also were conducted. All the collected data were analyzed through a content analysis. The results supports the conclusion that the website succeeds to attract potential foreign tourists to visit Brasil, but fails to supply all tourist\'s information needs. Also, it is possible to conclude that the website is incapable of influencing changes about the image of Rio de Janeiro as a tourist destination. This study contributes to the development of new researches on this field, and also will provide to the involved professionals and tourism companies, better comprehensions and new opportunities related to digital marketing practices developed to the Brazil Brand and its results so far.

Die Informationssuche und –integration konnten bei gedächtnisbasierten Multi-Attribut-Entscheidungen bislang nicht untersucht werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung eines neuen prozessbasierten Verfahrens, das auf einer Analyse von Blickbewegungen beruht. Das Verfahren wurde in einer experimentellen Untersuchung erprobt. In einer vorangestellten Lernphase eigneten sich die Versuchsteilnehmer Eigenschaftsausprägungen (Cue-Ausprägungen) von sechs verschiedenen Alternativen an. Die Eigenschaftsausprägungen waren in Textform in rechteckigen Kästen um eine bildliche Darstellung einer Alternative angeordnet. In der darauf folgenden Entscheidungsphase führten die Teilnehmer gedächtnisbasierte Entscheidungen zwischen jeweils zwei der Alternativen durch. Die eine Hälfte der Versuchsteilnehmer bekam die nichtkompensatorische Take the best (TTB) Heuristik instruiert, die andere Hälfte die kompensatorische Dawes Rule (DR). Während der Entscheidungsphase wurden die Blickbewegungen der Versuchsteilnehmer aufgezeichnet. Es wurde angenommen, dass sich die Blickbewegungen zwischen den zwei Gruppen instruierter und nach ihrem Entscheidungsverhalten klassifizierter Versuchsteilnehmer hinsichtlich der strategieinduzierten Suchmuster unterscheiden würden. Diese Annahme beruht auf Befunden, die zeigen, dass Versuchsteilnehmer beim Informationsabruf an die Orte zurückblicken, an denen sie zuvor Informationen aufgenommen haben, selbst wenn diese Informationen dort nicht mehr stehen. Verwender der TTB Heuristik zeigten mehr Blickwechsel zwischen den Alternativen, je später der erste Cue differenzierte, und sie verweilten kürzer in einer Alternative, bevor sie den Blick auf die andere Alternative richteten. Bei DR Verwendern fanden sich erwartungsgemäß keine Unterschiede in den Blickwechselhäufigkeiten, je später der erste Cue differenzierte, und sie verweilten länger innerhalb einer Alternative vor einem Blickwechsel. Die Ergebnisse stützen die Idee, dass Blickbewegungen wertvolle Informationen über die kognitiven Prozesse während der Gedächtnissuche liefern können. Das Potenzial der Blickbewegungsmessung als Prozessmaß zur Untersuchung gedächtnisbasierter Entscheidungen wird diskutiert. / The common methods for studying heuristics in memory-based multi-attribute decisions provide outcome and response measures but do not directly observe information search. Hence, foregoing cognitive processes cannot be explored. In the presented experiment a novel process-tracing method is introduced that uses eye-tracking to study memory-based decisions. It is based on the so-called ‘looking at nothing’ effect that assumes that people fixate on blank locations if a relevant visual stimulus previously occupied that location. Therefore, participants learned cue information of decision alternatives in spatial frames. In the decision phase they were presented with emptied displays of two alternatives and performed binary choices between them. Participants were instructed to decide either according to a lexicographic or a compensatory strategy. Fixation patterns on former cue locations and reaction times mirrored memory search and cue processing as assumed for the tested strategies.

Ma thèse porte sur une dimension fondamentale de la structure des groupes sociaux : la hiérarchie. Chez l'être humain, les hiérarchies sociales régissent en profondeur les interactions. Pour naviguer avec succès dans son environnement, il doit être en mesure de repérer précisément les positions hiérarchiques des autres membres de son groupe. Ce travail de thèse vise à caractériser certains mécanismes neuronaux, comportementaux et physiologiques impliqués dans l'analyse d'un indice hiérarchique. Pour préciser la nature du traitement de la hiérarchie, j'ai exploré son influence sur différentes étapes de la perception des visages. Je me suis tout d'abord intéressée au décours temporel du traitement neuronal des visages dans un contexte hiérarchique. Deux études menées en électroencéphalographie m'ont permis d'identifier les potentiels neuronaux et les composants oscillatoires évoqués par la perception de visages associés soit, à un rang hiérarchique établi à l'issue d'une compétition, soit à un statut social induit par la profession. Une étude réalisée ensuite en oculométrie avait pour but de capturer l'influence de la hiérarchie sur des mécanismes fins du contrôle de l'attention visuelle. J'ai étudié à la fois l'exploration visuelle de classements hiérarchiques incluant le participant, et celle de visages associés à des rangs hiérarchiques différents. Enfin, j'ai tenté de déterminer si un signal ou une situation d'asymétrie hiérarchique véhicule une valence émotionnelle et motivationnelle non neutre susceptible d'induire des variations de certains paramètres physiologiques, comme le rythme cardiaque ou la réponse électrodermale / Hierarchy is a key organizational feature of social groups. In order to successfully navigate their social environment, humans must precisely read the hierarchical position of other during social interaction. This present thesis intends to characterize the neural correlates as well as the early physiological and behavioral mechanisms involved in the processing of social rank. The influence of hierarchy was mainly investigated in the context of face perception. To begin, my focus was on the time course of neuronal processing of faces embedded in a hierarchical context. Using eletroencephalography in two studies, it has been possible to identify evoked neuronal potentials and oscillatory components in response to faces varying in hierarchical rank, established through competition or social status induced by profession. The next study used eye-tracking methodology to explore the influence of hierarchy on the subtle mechanisms of visual attention control. I aimed at characterizing the visual scanning pattern of hierarchical rankings (during a competition) and of faces associated with different hierarchical ranks. Finally, I tried to determine if a hierarchical signal or a social asymmetrical situation conveyed an emotional/motivational valence. During face perception and a minimal social interaction, I examined if this particular dimension of hierarchy generated variations of physiological activity, such as heart rate and skin conductance response

A popularização mundial da internet facilita para seus usuários o compartilhamento de informações, opiniões e experiências sobre diversas questões, como seus interesses, produtos, serviços e locais que visitaram ou que pretendem visitar. Nesse contexto, abre-se espaço para que as organizações também participem desse processo, de modo a conhecer melhor seus públicos e desenvolver ações para influenciar positivamente suas decisões; esse conjunto de práticas forma a chamada comunicação digital. Dentro da competição internacional para atrair investimentos, turistas, imigrantes e estimular exportações, muitos países passaram a adotar estratégias e práticas de criação e gestão de marcas a fim de melhorar suas imagens para obter melhores resultados nessa competição (inclusive o Brasil, através da Marca Brasil) e, com isso, a comunicação digital surge como um importante aliado. Entretanto, observa-se uma escassez de pesquisas que abordem a interdisciplinaridade desses assuntos. Assim, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa é avaliar a experiência de navegação de usuários estrangeiros nos conteúdos de comunicação digital no portal Visit Brasil. A pesquisa foi definida como qualitativa exploratória e, num primeiro momento, realizou entrevistas em profundidade com os profissionais envolvidos na criação e gerenciamento de tais práticas no caso brasileiro. Num segundo momento, foram entrevistados usuários estrangeiros dos conteúdos gerados para a Marca Brasil, contando também com as informações complementares obtidas pelo uso de um equipamento de eye tracking. Os dados qualitativos levantados serviram de base para uma análise de conteúdo. Os resultados obtidos fomentam a conclusão de que o portal Visit Brasil atinge seu objetivo de atrair potenciais turistas estrangeiros a visitar o país, mas falha em seu outro propósito de suprir as necessidades de informações turísticas desses indivíduos. Além disso, conclui-se que o portal não é capaz de influenciar mudanças na imagem do Rio de Janeiro como um destino turístico. Este estudo traz contribuições ao desenvolvimento de novos trabalhos sobre o assunto, além de fornecer aos profissionais envolvidos, e potencialmente às empresas do setor brasileiro de turismo, uma melhor compreensão e o descobrimento de novas oportunidades a respeito das práticas de comunicação digital desenvolvidas em prol da Marca Brasil e de seus resultados até o momento. / The worldwide popularization of the internet makes easier for its users to share information, opinions and experiences about several subjects, like their interests, products, services and places they\'ve been to or intend to go in the future. In this context, companies have the opportunity to also take part into this process, being able to know better their audiences and developing actions to positively influence their decisions, putting into practice digital marketing activities. As the international competition to attract investments, tourists, immigrants and stimulate exports continues to grow, many countries now adopt branding strategies and practices trying to improve their own images to get better results into this competition (including Brazil, through the Brazil Brand), and digital marketing is now an important ally for that attempt. However, studies that approach the interdisciplinarity of those subjects are scarce. Therefore, this study was developed to evaluate the experience of foreign users towards the digital marketing contents developed to the Brazil Brand through the website Visit Brasil. First, through a qualitative approach, in depth interviews were developed with professionals involved on the creation and management of those practices. After that, foreign users of the Brazil Brand online materials interacted with those contents, and these interactions were recorded and analyzed with an eye tracking equipment. In depth interviews also were conducted. All the collected data were analyzed through a content analysis. The results supports the conclusion that the website succeeds to attract potential foreign tourists to visit Brasil, but fails to supply all tourist\'s information needs. Also, it is possible to conclude that the website is incapable of influencing changes about the image of Rio de Janeiro as a tourist destination. This study contributes to the development of new researches on this field, and also will provide to the involved professionals and tourism companies, better comprehensions and new opportunities related to digital marketing practices developed to the Brazil Brand and its results so far.

La lutte contre le tabagisme représente un enjeu de santé publique majeur. En France, seules des méthodes déclaratives (questionnaires, entretiens) sont utilisées à ce jour pour étudier l'impact des messages de prévention sur la population. Les neurosciences et les sciences cognitives peuvent pourtant apporter de précieuses informations pour la compréhension des processus attentionnels, émotionnels et mnésiques mis en jeu lorsqu'un individu fumeur est exposé à une campagne de prévention anti-tabac. Depuis 2011, en France, des avertissements sanitaires anti-tabac combinés (comportant une photo et un texte) sont apposés sur tous les paquets de cigarettes. Ces avertissements qualifiés de « chocs » par les médias, peuvent évoquer de la peur ou du dégout chez les individus car certains d'entre eux représentent des pathologies graves dues au tabagisme. L'objectif de ce projet de recherche était d'utiliser les outils des sciences cognitives et des neurosciences afin d'observer le traitement cognitif des avertissements sanitaires combinés actuellement apposés sur les paquets de cigarettes en France. Une première étude a permis d'observer quelles émotions étaient évoquées par les avertissements et si ces émotions impactaient l'attention portée aux avertissements et leur mémorisation chez des fumeurs et des non-fumeurs. Dans un second temps de notre projet, nous avons donc observé grâce à la méthodologie de l'Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique fonctionnelle, si l'exposition à des avertissements sanitaires combinés modulait l'activité cérébrale évoquée chez les fumeurs lors de l'exposition à des stimuli liés au tabac. / Fighting tobacco represents one of the biggest global health challenges for public policymakers. In France, cognitive (neuro)sciences are not used to develop and test anti-tobacco strategies prior to scaling them. However they could provide valuable insights in the understanding of attentional, emotional and memorization processes at play when a person is exposed to strategies aiming at fighting tobacco consumption. Since 2011, France has been using the set of graphic warnings provided by the European Commission in combination to text warning on cigarette packets. In a series of experimental studies, funded by the Ligue Nationale Contre Le Cancer, we used methodology from cognitive sciences (eye-tracking) and functional neuroimaging (fMRI) to investigate processes involved when smokers and non-smokers are exposed to such tobacco warnings. Tobacco warnings used in France may induce disgust or fear because some of them depict body damages caused by tobacco related diseases. In a first study, we observed the relationship between the nature of basic emotions evoked by those warnings in smokers and non smokers and the attentional and memorization processes. In a second study, we tested whether being exposed to tobacco warnings modulates the specific brain activity observed in fMRI when smokers are exposed to tobacco related images, a mechanism involved in “smoking cue reactivity”.

La reconnaissance experte de l'expression faciale est cruciale pour l'interaction et la communication sociale. Le comportement, les potentiels évoqués (ERP), et les techniques d’oculométrie peuvent être utilisés pour étudier les mécanismes cérébraux qui participent au traitement visuel automatique. La reconnaissance d'expressions faciales implique non seulement l'extraction d'informations à partir de caractéristiques faciales diagnostiques, stratégie qualifiée de traitement local, mais aussi l'intégration d'informations globales impliquant des traitements configuraux. Des nombreuses recherches concernant le traitement des informations faciales émotionnelles il apparaît que l’interaction des traitements locaux et configuraux pour la reconnaissance des émotions est mal comprise. La complexité inhérente à l'intégration de l'information faciale est mise en lumière lorsque l'on compare la performance de sujets sains et d’individus atteints de schizophrénie, car ces derniers ont tendance à s’attarder sur quelques éléments locaux, parfois peu informatifs. Les différentes façons d'examiner les visages peuvent avoir un impact sur la capacité socio-cognitive de reconnaître les émotions. Pour ces raisons, cette thèse étudie le rôle des caractéristiques diagnostiques et configurales dans la reconnaissance de l'expression faciale. En plus des aspects comportementaux, nous avons donc examiné la dynamique spatiale et temporelle des fixations à l’aide de mesures oculométriques, ainsi que l’activité électrophysiologique précoce considérant plus particulièrement les composantes P100 et N170. Nous avons créé de nouveaux stimuli des esquisses par une transformation numérique de portraits photos en esquisses, pour des visages exprimant colère, tristesse, peur, joie ou neutralité, issus de la base Radboud Faces Database, en supprimant les informations de texture du visage et ne conservant que les caractéristiques diagnostiques (yeux et sourcils, nez, bouche). Ces esquisses altèrent le traitement configural en comparaison avec les visages photographiques, ce qui augmente le traitement des caractéristiques diagnostiques par traitement élémentaire, en contrepartie. La comparaison directe des mesures neurocognitives entre les esquisses et les visages photographiques exprimant des émotions de base n'a jamais été testée, à notre connaissance. Dans cette thèse, nous avons examiné (i) les fixations oculaires en fonction du type de stimulus, (ii) la réponse électrique aux manipulations expérimentales telles que l'inversion et la déconfiguration du visage. Concernant, les résultats comportementaux montrent que les esquisses de visage transmettent suffisamment d'information expressive (compte tenu de la présence des caractéristiques diagnostiques) pour la reconnaissance des émotions en comparaison des visages photographiques. Notons que, comme attendu, il y avait un net avantage de la reconnaissance des émotions pour les expressions heureuses par rapport aux autres émotions. En revanche, reconnaître des visages tristes et en colère était plus difficile. Ayant analysé séparément les fixations successives, les résultats indiquent que les participants ont adopté un traitement plus local des visages croqués et photographiés lors de la deuxième fixation. Néanmoins, l'extraction de l'information des yeux est nécessaire lorsque l'expression transmet des informations émotionnelles plus complexes et lorsque les stimuli sont simplifiés comme dans les esquisses. Les résultats de l’électroencéphalographie suggèrent également que les esquisses ont engendré plus de traitement basé sur les parties. Les éléments transmis par les traits diagnostiques pourraient avoir fait l'objet d'un traitement précoce, probablement dû à des informations de bas niveau durant la fenêtre temporelle de la P100, suivi d'un décodage ultérieur de la structure faciale dans la fenêtre temporelle de la N170. / Proficient recognition of facial expression is crucial for social interaction. Behaviour, event-related potentials (ERPs), and eye-tracking techniques can be used to investigate the underlying brain mechanisms supporting this seemingly effortless processing of facial expression. Facial expression recognition involves not only the extraction of expressive information from diagnostic facial features, known as part-based processing, but also the integration of featural information, known as configural processing. Despite the critical role of diagnostic features in emotion recognition and extensive research in this area, it is still not known how the brain decodes configural information in terms of emotion recognition. The complexity of facial information integration becomes evident when comparing performance between healthy subjects and individuals with schizophrenia because those patients tend to process featural information on emotional faces. The different ways in examining faces possibly impact on social-cognitive ability in recognizing emotions. Therefore, this thesis investigates the role of diagnostic features and face configuration in the recognition of facial expression. In addition to behavior, we examined both the spatiotemporal dynamics of fixations using eye-tracking, and early neurocognitive sensitivity to face as indexed by the P100 and N170 ERP components. In order to address the questions, we built a new set of sketch face stimuli by transforming photographed faces from the Radboud Faces Database through the removal of facial texture and retaining only the diagnostic features (e.g., eyes, nose, mouth) with neutral and four facial expressions - anger, sadness, fear, happiness. Sketch faces supposedly impair configural processing in comparison with photographed faces, resulting in increased sensitivity to diagnostic features through part-based processing. The direct comparison of neurocognitive measures between sketch and photographed faces expressing basic emotions has never been tested. In this thesis, we examined (i) eye fixations as a function of stimulus type, and (ii) neuroelectric response to experimental manipulations such face inversion and deconfiguration. The use of these methods aimed to reveal which face processing drives emotion recognition and to establish neurocognitive markers of emotional sketch and photographed faces processing. Overall, the behavioral results showed that sketch faces convey sufficient expressive information (content of diagnostic features) as in photographed faces for emotion recognition. There was a clear emotion recognition advantage for happy expressions as compared to other emotions. In contrast, recognizing sad and angry faces was more difficult. Concomitantly, results of eye-tracking showed that participants employed more part-based processing on sketch and photographed faces during second fixation. The extracting information from the eyes is needed when the expression conveys more complex emotional information and when stimuli are impoverished (e.g., sketch). Using electroencephalographic (EEG), the P100 and N170 components are used to study the effect of stimulus type (sketch, photographed), orientation (inverted, upright), and deconfiguration, and possible interactions. Results also suggest that sketch faces evoked more part-based processing. The cues conveyed by diagnostic features might have been subjected to early processing, likely driven by low-level information during P100 time window, followed by a later decoding of facial structure and its emotional content in the N170 time window. In sum, this thesis helped elucidate elements of the debate about configural and part-based face processing for emotion recognition, and extend our current understanding of the role of diagnostic features and configural information during neurocognitive processing of facial expressions of emotion.

Yes / Can adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) infer what happened to someone from their emotional response? Millikan has argued that in everyday life, others' emotions are most commonly used to work out the antecedents of behavior, an ability termed retrodictive mindreading. As those with ASD show difficulties interpreting others' emotions, we predicted that these individuals would have difficulty with retrodictive mindreading. Sixteen adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome and 19 typically developing adults viewed 21 video clips of people reacting to one of three gifts (chocolate, monopoly money, or a homemade novelty) and then inferred what gift the recipient received and the emotion expressed by that person. Participants' eye movements were recorded while they viewed the videos. Results showed that participants with ASD were only less accurate when inferring who received a chocolate or homemade gift. This difficulty was not due to lack of understanding what emotions were appropriate in response to each gift, as both groups gave consistent gift and emotion inferences significantly above chance (genuine positive for chocolate and feigned positive for homemade). Those with ASD did not look significantly less to the eyes of faces in the videos, and looking to the eyes did not correlate with accuracy on the task. These results suggest that those with ASD are less accurate when retrodicting events involving recognition of genuine and feigned positive emotions, and challenge claims that lack of attention to the eyes causes emotion recognition difficulties in ASD. / University of Nottingham, School of Psychology