Curiosity can be defined as a drive to engage in exploratory behaviors and has been associated with an increased state of arousal (Berlyne, 1954). Exploratory behaviors, such as feedback requests, are associated with an information gain and the reduction of uncertainty. Although previous research has demonstrated the effects of emotions on the value of information gain (Marvin & Shohamy, 2016), and that the manipulation of arousal affected confidence (Allen et al., 2016) suggesting uncertainty can be affected independent of task difficulty, no previous study independently manipulated arousal to test its effect on curiosity. Given the effects of curiosity on motivation and learning, understanding how arousal influence curiosity would be beneficial for applications in fields such as education. In the present study, we hypothesized that emotionally-induced arousal has an impact on curiosity by influencing uncertainty and the value of information gain. A sample of 17 students were presented with arousing supraliminal emotional cues prior to rating confidence about their answers to trivia questions and deciding on feedback choices. Feedback requests were associated with a time delay, in a way that participants were required to trade off time for information. Results showed that uncertainty levels did not reliably predict feedback choices. Further analyses failed to demonstrate an effect of arousal on feedback choices. Finally, the pupillary response to events suggested that arousal levels did not differ significantly across conditions. Results can be due to the small sample or the test sensitivity. Possible improvements to the experimental paradigm are discussed, and directions for future research are considered.

Ce travail est divisé en deux parties: Dans la première partie, on présente un résultat d'intégration dans les espaces localement convexes valable pour une longe classe des fonctions non-convexes. Cela nous permet de récupérer l'enveloppe convexe fermée d'une fonction à partir du sous-différentiel convexe de cette fonction. Motivé par ce résultat, on introduit la classe des espaces ``Subdifferential Dense Primal Determined'' (SDPD). Ces espaces jouissent des conditions nécessaires permettant d'appliquer le résultat ci-dessus. On donne aussi une interprétation géométrique de ces espaces, appelée la Propriété Radon-Nikod'ym de Faces (FRNP). Dans la seconde partie, on étudie dans le contexte d'espaces d'Hilbert, la relation entre la lissité de la frontière d'un ensemble prox-régulier et la lissité de sa projection métrique. On montre que si un corps fermé possède une frontière $mathcal{C}^{p+1}$-lisse (avec $pgeq 1$), alors sa projection métrique est de classe $mathcal{C}^p$ dans le tube ouvert associé à sa fonction de prox-régularité. On établit également une version locale du même résultat reliant la lissité de la frontière autour d'un point à la prox-régularité en ce point. On étudie par ailleurs le cas où l'ensemble est lui-même une $mathcal{C}^{p+1}$-sous-variété. Finalement, on donne des réciproques de ces résultats. / This work is divided in two parts: In the first part, we present an integration result in locally convex spaces for a large class of nonconvex functions which enables us to recover the closed convex envelope of a function from its convex subdifferential. Motivated by this, we introduce the class of Subdifferential Dense Primal Determined (SDPD) spaces, which are those having the necessary condition which allows to use the above integration scheme, and we study several properties of it in the context of Banach spaces. We provide a geometric interpretation of it, called the Faces Radon-Nikod'ym property. In the second part, we study, in the context of Hilbert spaces, the relation between the smoothness of the boundary of a prox-regular set and the smoothness of its metric projection. We show that whenever a set is a closed body with a $mathcal{C}^{p+1}$-smooth boundary (with $pgeq 1$), then its metric projection is of class $mathcal{C}^{p}$ in the open tube associated to its prox-regular function. A local version of the same result is established as well, namely, when the smoothness of the boundary and the prox-regularity of the set are assumed only near a fixed point. We also study the case when the set is itself a $mathcal{C}^{p+1}$-submanifold. Finally, we provide converses for these results.

This thesis investigated the processing of emotional stimuli by the visual system, and how the processing of emotions interacts with visual awareness. Emotions have been given ‘special’ status by some previous research, with evidence that the processing of emotions may be relatively independent of striate cortex, and less affected by disruption to awareness than processing of emotionally neutral images. Yet the extent to which emotions are ‘special’ remains questionable. This thesis focused on the processing of emotional stimuli when activity in V1 was disrupted using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and whether emotional properties of stimuli can be reliably discriminated, or affect subsequent responses, when visibility is low. Two of the experiments reported in this thesis disrupted activity in V1 using TMS, Experiment 1 with single pulses in an online design, and Experiment 2 with theta burst stimulation in an offline design. Experiment 1 found that a single pulse of TMS 70-130 ms following a presentation of a body posture image disrupted processing of neutral but not emotional postures in an area of the visual field that corresponded to the disruption. Experiment 2 did not find any convincing evidence of disruption to processing of neutral or emotional faces. From Experiment 1 it would appear that emotional body posture images were relatively unaffected by TMS, and appeared to be robust to disruption to V1. Experiment 2 did not add to this as there was no evidence of disruption in any condition. Experiments 3 and 4 used visual masking to disrupt awareness of emotional and neutral faces. Both experiments used a varying interval between the face and the mask stimuli to systematically vary the visibility of the faces. Overall, the shortest SOA produced the lowest level of visibility, and this level of visibility was arguably outside awareness. In Experiment 3, participants’ ability to discriminate properties of emotional faces under low visibility conditions was greater than their ability to discriminate the orientation of the face. This was despite the orientation discrimination being much easier at higher levels of visibility. Experiment 4 used a gender discrimination task, with emotion providing a redundant cue to the decision (present half of the time). Despite showing a strong linear masking function for the neutral faces, there was no evidence of any emotion advantage. Overall, Experiment 3 gave some evidence of an emotion advantage under low visibility conditions, but this effect was fairly small and not replicated in Experiment 4. Finally, Experiments 5-8 used low visibility emotional faces to prime responses to subsequent emotional faces (Experiments 5 and 6) or words (Experiments 7 and 8). In Experiments 5, 7 and 8 there was some evidence of emotional priming effects, although these effects varied considerably across the different designs used. There was evidence for meaningful processing of the emotional prime faces, but this processing only led to small and variable effects on subsequent responses. In summary, this thesis found some evidence that the processing of emotional stimuli was relatively robust to disruption in V1 with TMS. Attempts to find evidence for robust processing of emotional stimuli when disrupted with backwards masking was less successful, with at best mixed results from discrimination tasks and priming experiments. Whether emotional stimuli are processed by a separate route(s) in the brain is still very much open to debate, but the findings of this thesis offers small and inconsistent evidence for a brain network for processing emotions that is relatively independent of V1 and visual awareness. The network and nature of brain structures involved in the processing of subliminal and low visibility processing of emotions remains somewhat elusive.

The attentional blink occurs when detection of a second target (T2) is impaired when it occurs between 180 to 450 ms after the first target (T1) in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). The attentional blink can be affected by relevant emotional stimuli, like emotional faces, such that an emotional T1 enhances the attentional blink, and an emotional T2 attenuates it. However, not all studies use the same type of face stimuli, and there is debate over whether schematic and photo-realistic faces are processed in the same way. Furthermore, the effect of emotion on the attentional blink should differ with age, given the tendency for younger adults to display a negativity bias and for older adults to display a positivity effect. Very little research has been conducted on the attentional blink with emotional stimuli in older adults. In fact, the effect of emotional faces, which are arguably more salient stimuli than other stimuli such as emotional words, on the attentional blink has not been investigated in older adults. Therefore, this study sought to examine the impact of emotional faces on the attentional blink in younger and older adults using photo-realistic faces with angry, happy, and neutral expressions as targets in a RSVP. Although older adults did perform worse overall, there were no age differences in the effect of emotion on the attentional blink. Angry faces, as well as happy faces to a limited extent, increased the attentional blink when they served as T1. Neither the angry or happy faces as T2 were able to attenuate the blink. Given that emotional faces affected the attentional blink at T1 but not at T2, it may be the case that the emotional expressions served to maintain attention, rather than to capture it. Future studies are necessary to test this idea, as well as to more directly test the differential effect of emotional photorealistic and schematic faces on the attentional blink.

In both his fiction and non-fiction, Lewis comments on myth, its characteristics and strengths, and its relation to Christian doctrine. His use of myth to examine and to illustrate Christian ideas is most important in the space trilogy, the Narnia series of children's books, and Till We Have Faces. These books are the primary sources for this thesis, and they will be examined in chronological order.

Holocaust survivor Dr. Yaffa Eliach collected over 6,000 photographs depicting residents of Eishyshok, a small Jewish settlement in Eastern Europe, taken between 1890 and 1941. Eliach survived the Nazi-led massacre in 1941 that killed nearly the entire Jewish population of Eishyshok. As a way to commemorate the destroyed town of her youth she began to collect photographs from other survivors and residents who fled Europe prior to the Holocaust. She subsequently selected 1,032 photographs from the Yaffa Eliach Shtetl Collection for display in The Tower of Faces, a permanent exhibition in The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, located in Washington, DC. The Tower of Faces is a multivalent exhibition. What the photographs represent has changed as time has passed and the collection has served multiple purposes. For Eliach, who has a personal connection to the collection and to events the images have come to represent, the exhibition is a monument within a memorial museum that specifically visually depicts and commemorates Eishyshok and its residents. Once the photographs were accessioned into the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s permanent collection exhibition designers and curators used the photographs to facilitate a connection between visitors who may not have a direct association to the Holocaust. For visitors, the familial photographs do not represent direct memories or evidence of atrocity, as they do for Eliach. Rather, the Tower of Faces is a site of postmemory and the photographs is what connects the Holocaust to Eliach’s memory of the Holocaust to visitors’ understanding of the Holocaust.

O reconhecimento de expressões faciais de emoções (REFE) é essencial para a interação social cotidiana e a comunicação interpessoal e é considerado um aspecto importante da cognição social. É uma condição inata e universal nos seres humanos, mas pode ser influenciada por diferentes variáveis sociodemográficas como sexo, idade e escolaridade. Apesar do número expressivo de estudos relacionados ao REFE, não existe uma tarefa padrão utilizada em sua avaliação e as que se encontram disponíveis nem sempre passaram por um procedimento de padronização e normatização. O presente estudo propôs-se a avaliar comparativamente três diferentes tarefas de REFE utilizadas no contexto brasileiro, e disponibilizar um procedimento normatizado às características socioculturais de nossa população, considerando as variáveis anteriormente destacadas, em uma amostra da população geral, estimada estatisticamente (n=240). Para composição desta amostra, foram incluídos sujeitos de ambos os sexos, com idade entre 18 e 75 anos, sem prejuízos intelectuais e com variados níveis de escolaridade. A coleta de dados foi realizada individualmente. Os dados referentes a acurácia, tempo de resposta e intensidade para o reconhecimento das expressões foram salvos automaticamente pelo programa computacional gerador da atividade e alocados manualmente em um banco de dados. Utilizou-se para as análises estatísticas o programa Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Os dados sociodemográficos da amostra e aqueles relacionados ao desempenho nas tarefas foram analisados através de testes estatísticos descritivos e paramétricos (teste t de Student, Anova, Qui-Quadrado e Teste de Correlação de Pearson). O tamanho de efeito das diferenças foi calculado por meio do eta2 parcial e do d de Cohen. Para realizar o procedimento de normatização calculou-se a distribuição dos dados em percentis de acordo com cada tarefa e grupo estudado. Os resultados apontaram para uma ligeira superioridade das mulheres no REFE em tarefas dinâmicas, maior prejuízo do grupo na faixa etária dos 61-75 anos independente da tarefa, e menor acurácia dos sujeitos com menor escolaridade na tarefa estática. No que diz respeito às tarefas utilizadas observou-se que a acurácia foi maior na tarefa dinâmica preto e branco e que a tarefa estática exigiu maior tempo de resposta mas menor intensidade de emoção para o REFE. Em análises comparativas a tarefa dinâmica pareceu ser aquela com maior proximidade à condição real de contato humano. Considerando que a TDPB foi aquela com maior média de acerto considerou-se esta a mais apropriada para uso no nosso contexto. O estudo apresentou/disponibilizou ainda dados normativos para o contexto brasileiro em função do sexo, idade e escolaridade, que poderão servir como parâmetro de comparação em outros estudos clínicos, bem como para pesquisa de avaliação do reconhecimento emocional. / The recognition of facial expressions of emotions (REFE) is essential for everyday social interaction and interpersonal communication and is considered an important aspect of social cognition. It is an innate and universal condition in humans, but it can be influenced by different sociodemographic variables such as sex, age and schooling. Despite the significant number of studies related to the REFE, there is no standard task used in its evaluation and those that are available do not always undergo a procedure of standardization and normatization. The aim of this study was to compare three different REFE tasks used in the Brazilian context and to provide a normalized procedure to the sociocultural characteristics of our population, considering the variables previously mentioned in a statistically significant sample of the general population (n= 240 ). For the composition of this sample, subjects of both genders, aged between 18 and 75 years, without intellectual losses and with varying levels of schooling were included. Data collection was done individually. The data referring to the accuracy, response time and intensity for the recognition of the expressions were automatically saved by the computational program generating the activity and manually allocated in a database. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for statistical analysis. The sociodemographic data of the sample and those related to performance in the tasks were analyzed through descriptive and parametric statistical tests (Student\'s t test, Anova, Chi-Square and Pearson\'s correlation test). The effect size of the differences was calculated by means of partial eta2 and Cohen\'s d. To perform the standardization procedure, the distribution of the data in percentiles was calculated according to each task and group studied. The results pointed to a slight superiority of the women in the REFE in dynamic tasks, greater loss of the group in the age group of 61-75 years independent of the task, and lower accuracy of the subjects with less schooling in the static task. Regarding the tasks used it was observed that the accuracy was higher in the black and white dynamic task and that the static task required a longer response time but a lower intensity of emotion for the REFE. In comparative analyzes the dynamic task seemed to be the one with the closest proximity to the real condition of human contact. Considering that the TDPB was the one with the highest average accuracy, it was considered that this was the most appropriate for use in our context. The study presented / provided normative data for the Brazilian context based on sex, age and schooling, which may serve as a benchmark in other clinical studies, as well as for the evaluation of emotional recognition.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo desenvolver uma metodologia baseada em lógica nebulosa, (KLIR ; YUAN, 1995) para detectar faces humanas em imagens digitais. Considerando que pessoas conseguem reconhecer facilmente as faces humanas, este trabalho prevê a pesquisa da informação relativa a esse reconhecimento utilizando os resultados obtidos, em um esquema \"fuzzy\", para identificação de faces humanas em imagens digitais. É proposto então um algoritmo que classifique automaticamente as regiões de uma imagem em faces humanas ou não. O conhecimento para a construção da base de regras foi obtido através de informações das pessoas por meio de uma pesquisa de campo onde as respostas foram numericamente armazenadas para a geração da classificação nebulosa. Foram gerados desenhos line-draw que de uma maneira global representam as faces humanas. Esses desenhos foram apresentados às pessoas entrevistadas que forneceram subsídios para a montagem das regras \"fuzzy\". O algoritmo foi capaz de a partir daí, identificar faces humanas em imagens digitalizadas. Imagens simples contendo uma face frontal foram submetidas a um algoritmo e ao passarem por processamento (extração de bordas, erosão, binarização, etc...) perderam características, tornando difícil sua identificação. O algoritmo \"fuzzy\" foi capaz de atribuir um grau de pertinência à imagem dentro do conjunto de faces humanas frontais. A lógica nebulosa possui história recente, porém, desde cedo, demonstra sua versatilidade, principalmente por traduzir modelos não lineares ou imprecisos, os quais não apresentam convergência através de modelagem matemática convencional. / The present master dissertation aims to develop a methodology based on fuzzy pattern (KLIR; YUAN, 1995) to detect human faces in digital images. Considering that people are easily able to recognize human faces, this study foresees the research of the relative information to this recognition using the acquire results, in a \"fuzzy\" scheme, for the identification of human faces in digital images. It\'s proposed an algorithm which automatically classifies or not the regions of an image in human faces. It is based on the information acquired from people by means of a field research where the answers are stored numerically for the creation of the fuzzy classification. Drawings line-draw were created to represent human faces and were presented to the people interviewed to furnish information for the creation of the fuzzy rules. After that the algorithm was able to identify human faces in digitalized images. The algorithm utilizes simple images containing a frontal face, which lose their characteristics when they are processed (edges extration, erosion, binary image, etc...) and make their identification difficult. The fuzzy algorithm is also able to classify the images within the set of frontal human faces. The fuzzy logic has a recent history, however, it has always demonstrated its versatility, mainly regarding the translation of non-linear or inexact models which do not present conventional mathematical convergence through modeling.

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo pesquisar os efeitos que as bandas de freqüência espacial alta e baixa têm no reconhecimento de faces em campo visual lateralizado. Foram distribuídos aleatoriamente 40 participantes em dois grupos. Os voluntários observaram 14 fotos de faces sem filtragem até memorizá-las. A seguir foram apresentadas 56 fotos de faces com filtragens de freqüências espaciais, intercaladas aleatoriamente com apresentações de faces não mostradas anteriormente. Cada uma delas foi exibida na tela durante 300 ms mediante a metodologia de apresentação dicótica. O participante devia responder se a face mostrada pertencia ao grupo de fotos inicialmente observado. As freqüências de respostas permitiram calcular as curvas ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) e os parâmetros Az e da preconizado pela Teoria de Detecção de Sinal (MACMILLAN; CREELMAN, 2005) para as faces naturais, faces compostas de freqüências espaciais baixas e faces compostas de freqüências espaciais altas. Os resultados obtidos mostram que as faces Originais foram melhor reconhecidas do que as faces com Freqüências Espaciais Altas (FEA) ou Freqüências Espaciais Baixas (FEB). Ao contrário do achado na literatura, o Hemisfério Esquerdo (HE) teve uma tendência a reconhecer mais eficazmente as faces do que o Hemisfério Direito (HD), independente da condição de filtragem. O HD é igualmente competente do que o HE para processar FEB, mas pior do que o HE para processar FEA. Quanto à performance por gênero, tanto homens quanto mulheres tiveram um desempenho similar quando as faces foram processadas com o HD. O desempenho das mulheres ficou de acordo com a hipótese da FE, pois o reconhecimento que fizeram para as faces com FEA foi melhor do que para as que tinham predomínio de FEB. Os homens, mesmo com o HE, fizeram um reconhecimento melhor das faces com predomínio de FEB do que das faces com FEA. / This study was made with the objective of investigate the effects of high and low spatial frequency bands in face recognition in lateralized visual field. 40 participants were randomly distributed in two groups. The volunteers viewed fourteen non-filtered pictures of faces until they managed to memorize them. After that, fifty six spatial frequency filtered pictures of faces were presented randomly interspersed with pictures of faces previously showed. Each one of them was exhibited in the screen for three hundred milliseconds using the dichotic presentation procedure. The participant should answer whether the face presented belonged to the group of pictures initially viewed. The frequency of responses allowed to calculate the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) Curves and the Az and da parameters praised by the Signal Detection Theory (Macmillan; Creelman, 2005) for natural faces, low spatial frequency composed faces and high spatial frequency composed faces. Results showed that original faces were better recognized than faces with high spatial frequencies (HSF) and low spatial frequencies (LSF). Differently from literature, the left hemisphere was more accurate than the right to recognize faces, regardless of the filter condition. The RH was equivalent to the LH to process LSF, but worse than the LH to process HSF. Concerning the performance of the genders, men and women judged faces in a very similar way when they used the RH. The performance of women agreed with the FE hypothesis, being faces with HSF recognized better than faces with LSF. Men, even using the LH, were more accurate to recognize faces with LSF than HSF.

A simetria facial foi investigada como fator de atratividade em quatro experimentos. Fotos frontais em preto e branco de faces de homens e mulheres foram manipuladas por computação gráfica para gerar faces simétricas. No Exp. I as faces simétricas foram geradas a partir da reflexão das metades laterais, direita e esquerda, de cada face. Essas faces simétricas e suas respectivas faces naturais foram apresentadas a sujeitos para julgar o quão atrativa elas eram. Os resultados mostraram que faces assimétricas (naturais) foram julgadas como mais atrativas que as simétricas. No Exp. II utilizaram-se as mesmas faces simétricas e naturais do Exp. I, porém, excluindo-se os elementos externos da face por meio de uma moldura elíptica. Essas faces foram apresentadas aos pares e pediu-se para os participantes escolher a mais atrativa, além de julgar seu grau de atratividade. Os resultados mostraram que nenhuma foto simétrica foi julgada como mais atrativa que sua respectiva face natural, bem como as faces naturais foram mais escolhidas que as simétricas. A exclusão dos elementos externos das faces não contribuiu para aumentar o grau de atratividade das mesmas. No Exp. III as faces simétricas foram geradas por técnica de morphing a partir da imagem da face original e a sua respectiva imagem refletida. A apresentação e julgamentos das faces seguiram o modelo do Exp. II. Os resultados mostraram que nenhuma face simétrica obteve escore de atratividade maior que as naturais, mas com relação às escolhas, para faces masculinas houve maior número de escolhas para as faces simétricas. No Exp. IV foram utilizadas as mesmas faces simétricas e naturais do Exp. III, excluindo-se os elementos faciais externos. Os resultados indicaram maior escores de atratividade, bem como um maior número de escolhas das faces simétricas. Comparadas ao Exp. III houve um aumento nos escores de atratividade para as faces simétricas e uma diminuição dos escores para as faces naturais. Conclui-se que a simetria não deve ser considerada como um fator isolado na análise da atratividade facial; relações entre outros elementos podem contribuir para tornar uma face mais atrativa. / The facial symmetry was investigated as attractiveness factor in four experiments. Front pictures in black and white of men\'s and women?s faces were manipulated by graphic computation to create symmetrical faces. In Exp. I, the symmetrical faces were created starting from the lateral half right and left reflection, of each face. Those symmetrical faces and their respective natural faces were presented to people that had to judge how attractive they were. The results showed that asymmetrical faces (natural) were judged as more attractive than the symmetrical ones. In Exp. II, we used the same symmetrical and natural faces of Exp. I, however, being excluded face?s external elements through an elliptic frame. These faces were presented in pairs and we asked for the participants to choose the most attractive, besides judging the attractiveness degree. The results showed that no symmetrical picture was judged as more attractive than its respective natural face, as well as the natural faces were more chosen than the symmetrical ones. The exclusion of the external elements of the faces didn\'t contribute to increase the attractiveness degree of themselves. In Exp. III, the symmetrical faces were created by morphing technique starting from the original face image and its respective reflected image. The presentation and judgments of the faces followed the model of Exp. II. The results showed that no symmetrical face obtained score of larger attractiveness than the natural ones, but regarding the choices, for masculine faces there was larger number of choices for the symmetrical faces. In Exp. IV we used the same symmetrical and natural faces of Exp. III, being excluded the external facial elements. The results indicated larger attractiveness scores, as well as a larger number of choices fore the symmetrical faces. Comparing Exp. IV with Exp. III, we had an increase in the attractiveness scores for the symmetrical faces and a decrease of the scores for the natural faces. We concluded that the symmetry should not be considered as an isolated factor in the facial attractiveness analysis; the relationships among other elements can contribute to turn a more attractive face.