Cognition and Perception Commons^™

What Shall We Call God? An Exploration Of Metaphors Coded From Descriptions Of God From A Large U.S. Undergraduate Sample, Adam K. Fetterman, Nicholas D. Evans, Julie J. Exline, Brian P. Meier

Psychology Faculty Publications

People use numerous metaphors to describe God. God is seen as a bearded man, light, and love. Based on metaphor theories, the metaphors people use to refer to God reflect how people think about God and could, in turn, reflect their worldview. However, little work has explored the common metaphors for God. This was the purpose of the current investigation. Four trained raters coded open-ended responses from predominantly Christian U.S. undergraduates (N = 2,923) describing God for the presence or absence of numerous metaphoric categories. We then assessed the frequency of each of the metaphor categories. We identified 16 metaphor …

A Role For Contrast Gain Control In Skin Appearance, Richard Russell, Carlota Batres, Alex L. Jones, Aurélie Porcheron

Psychology Faculty Publications

Apparent contrast can be suppressed or enhanced when presented within surrounding images. This contextual modulation is typically accounted for with models of contrast gain control. Similarly, the appearance of one part of a face is affected by the appearance of the other parts of the face. These influences are typically accounted for with models of face-specific holistic processing. Here we report evidence that facial skin appearance is modulated by adjacent surfaces. In four experiments we measured the appearance of skin evenness and wrinkles in images with increased or decreased contrast between facial skin and adjacent image regions. Increased contrast with …

The Path To God Is Through The Heart: Metaphoric Self-Location As A Predictor Of Religiosity, Adam K. Fetterman, Jacob Juhl, Brian P. Meier, Andrew Abeyta, Clay Routledge, Michael D. Robinson

Psychology Faculty Publications

Metaphors linking the heart to warm intuition and the head to cold rationality may capture important differences between people because some locate the self in the heart and others locate the self in the head. Five studies (total N = 2575) link these individual differences to religious beliefs. Study 1 found that religious beliefs were stronger among heart-locators than head-locators. Studies 2 and 3 replicated this relationship in more diverse samples. Studies 4 and 5 focused on questions of mediation. Heart-locators believed in God to a greater extent partly because of empathy-related processes (Study 4) and partly because they tended …

Cosmetics Increase Skin Evenness: Evidence From Perceptual And Physical Measures, Carlota Batres, Aurélie Porcheron, Julie Latreille, Magalie Roche, Frédérique Morizot, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background

Cosmetics are commonly attributed with increasing skin evenness, yet little published data characterizes the effect, either perceptually or physically. We therefore investigated whether makeup increases skin evenness using a perceptual measurement and two physical measurements of color and luminance homogeneity.

Materials and Methods

Twenty‐two French women (aged 29‐45 years) were photographed without cosmetics, with self‐applied cosmetics, and with professionally‐applied cosmetics. In Study 1, 143 participants rated skin evenness. In Study 2, each face was delineated to create regions of interest (ROI) in the cheek and forehead areas. Both ROIs were then analyzed for luminance homogeneity using an established measure …

Examining The ‘Cosmetics Placebo Effect’, Carlota Batres, Sarah S. Kramer, Caroline G. Deangelis, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Previous studies have found a positive effect of cosmetics on certain behavioral measures, such as the tip given to waitresses by male patrons. These studies have employed confederates who usually wear cosmetics. We therefore sought to examine whether the positive effect found in these studies could, in part, be explained by a change in behavior. In order to test the possibility of a ‘cosmetics placebo effect’, we employed a confederate to solicit donations from passersby. On some days our confederate would not have any cosmetics applied to her face (i.e., no cosmetics condition), on some days cosmetics were pretended to …

Evidence That The Hormonal Contraceptive Pill Is Associated With Cosmetic Habits, Carlota Batres, Aurélie Porcheron, Gwenaël Kaminski, Sandra Courrèges, Frédérique Morizot, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Hormonal contraception is known to cause subtle but widespread behavioral changes. Here, we investigated whether changes in cosmetic habits are associated with use of the hormonal contraceptive pill. We photographed a sample of women (N = 36) who self-reported whether or not they use the contraceptive pill, as well as their cosmetic habits. A separate sample of participants (N = 143) rated how much makeup these target women appeared to be wearing. We found that women not using the contraceptive pill (i.e., naturally cycling women) reported spending more time applying cosmetics for an outing than did women who …

The Heart Wants What It Wants: Effects Of Desirability And Body Part Salience On Distance Perceptions (Dewitt), Caroline C. Dewitt

Student Publications

Previous research has shown that the desirability of an object influences perceived distance from the object, such that desirable objects are perceived as closer than objects that are not desirable (Balcetis & Dunning, 2010). It has also been suggested that metaphors reflect how our knowledge is represented; so, for example, making the head or heart more salient produces characteristics commonly associated with those body parts (i.e., emotionality for the heart and rationality for the head) (Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). The current study examined the effects of head or heart salience and desirability on distance perception. We hypothesized that since common …

The Heart Wants What It Wants: Effects Of Desirability And Body Part Salience On Distance Perceptions (Heath), Jason B. Heath

Student Publications

Previous research has shown that the desirability of an object influences perceived distance from the object, such that desirable objects are perceived as closer than objects that are not desirable (Balcetis & Dunning, 2010). It has also been suggested that metaphors reflect how our knowledge is represented; so, for example, making the head or heart more salient produces characteristics commonly associated with those body parts (i.e., emotionality for the heart, rationality for the head) (Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). The current study examined the effects of head or heart salience and object desirability on distance perception. We hypothesized that, since common …

The Heart Wants What It Wants: Effects Of Desirability And Body Part Salience On Distance Perceptions (Campbell), Celeste M. Campbell

Student Publications

Previous research has shown that desirability influences perceived distance to an object, such that desirable objects are perceived as closer to the viewer than undesirable objects (Balcetis & Dunning, 2010). Research regarding conceptual metaphors has suggested that making the head or heart salient by placing the index finger there produces characteristics commonly associated with these body parts (i.e., emotionality for the heart and rationality for the head) (Fetterman & Robinson, 2013). The current studies examined the effects of desirability and head or heart salience on distance perception. Participants had their attention drawn to their head or their heart by touching …

Makeup Changes The Apparent Size Of Facial Features, Alex L. Jones, Aurélie Porcheron, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Makeup is a prominent example of the universal human practice of personal decoration. Many studies have shown that makeup makes the face appear more beautiful, but the visual cues mediating this effect are not well understood. A widespread belief holds that makeup makes the facial features appear larger. We tested this hypothesis using a novel reference comparison paradigm, in which carefully controlled photographs of faces with and without makeup were compared with an average reference face. Participants compared the relative size of specific features (eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth) of the reference face and individual faces with or without makeup. Across …

Positive Facial Affect Looks Healthy, Alex L. Jones, Carlota Batres, Aurélie Porcheron, Jennifer R. Sweda, Frédérique Morizot, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

A healthy appearance is linked to important behavioural outcomes. Here we investigated whether positive facial affect is a cue for perceived health. In study one, two groups of participants rated the perceived health or perceived happiness of a large set of faces with neutral expressions. Perceived happiness predicted perceived health, as did anthropometric measures of expression. In a second experimental study, we collected ratings of perceived health for a wide age range of target faces with either neutral or smiling expressions. Smiling faces were rated as being much healthier looking than neutral faces, confirming that facial expression plays a role …

Facial Contrast Is A Cross-Cultural Cue For Perceiving Age, Aurélie Porcheron, Emmanuelle Mauger, Frédérique Soppelsa, Yuli Liu, Liezhong Ge, Olivier Pascalis, Richard Russell, Frédérique Morizot

Psychology Faculty Publications

Age is a fundamental social dimension and a youthful appearance is of importance for many individuals, perhaps because it is a relevant predictor of aspects of health, facial attractiveness and general well-being. We recently showed that facial contrast—the color and luminance difference between facial features and the surrounding skin—is age-related and a cue to age perception of Caucasian women. Specifically, aspects of facial contrast decrease with age in Caucasian women, and Caucasian female faces with higher contrast look younger (Porcheron et al., 2013). Here we investigated faces of other ethnic groups and raters of other cultures to see …

Using Noninvasive Brain Measurement To Explore The Psychological Effects Of Computer Malfunctions On Users During Human-Computer Interactions, Leanne M. Hirshfield, Philip Bobko, Alex Barelka, Stuart H. Hirshfield, Mathew T. Farrington, Spencer Gulbronson, Diane Paverman

Management Faculty Publications

In today’s technologically driven world, there is a need to better understand the ways that common computer malfunctions affect computer users. These malfunctions may have measurable influences on computer user’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. An experiment was conducted where participants conducted a series of web search tasks while wearing functional nearinfrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and galvanic skin response sensors. Two computer malfunctions were introduced during the sessions which had the potential to influence correlates of user trust and suspicion. Surveys were given after each session to measure user’s perceived emotional state, cognitive load, and perceived trust. Results suggest that fNIRS …

Reimagining My Body, Center For Public Service

SURGE

I stood there, shoulders slouched, elbows locked, hands glued to the side of the toilet. My body convulsing, I told myself, “this is the last time, just one more time and you’ll get back on track tomorrow.” It wasn’t the last time. I had been forcing myself to purge for months at this point, and each time I hated myself for it.

It was something I couldn’t control. It wasn’t out of a need for attention as so commonly thought, but a pure need to be the unreachable level of thin that I thought would make me beautiful. I was …

Aspects Of Facial Contrast Decrease With Age And Are Cues For Age Perception, Aurelie Porcheron, Emmanuelle Mauger, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Age is a primary social dimension. We behave differently toward people as a function of how old we perceive them to be. Age perception relies on cues that are correlated with age, such as wrinkles. Here we report that aspects of facial contrast–the contrast between facial features and the surrounding skin–decreased with age in a large sample of adult Caucasian females. These same aspects of facial contrast were also significantly correlated with the perceived age of the faces. Individual faces were perceived as younger when these aspects of facial contrast were artificially increased, but older when these aspects of facial …

Color In Context: Psychological Context Moderates The Influence Of Red On Approach- And Avoidance-Motivated Behavior, Brian P. Meier, Paul R. D'Agostino, Andrew J. Elliott, Markus A. Meier, Benjamin M. Wilkowski

Psychology Faculty Publications

A basic premise of the recently proffered color-in-context model is that the influence of color on psychological functioning varies as a function of the psychological context in which color is perceived. Some research has examined the appetitive and aversive implications of viewing the color red in romance- and achievement-relevant contexts, respectively, but in all existing empirical work approach and avoidance behavior has been studied in separate tasks and separate experiments. Research is needed to directly test whether red influences the same behavior differently depending entirely on psychological context.

The present experiment was designed to put this premise to direct test …

A Perceptually Based Comparison Of Image Similarity Metrics, Richard Russell, Pawan Sinha

Psychology Faculty Publications

The assessment of how well one image matches another forms a critical component both of models of human visual processing and of many image analysis systems. Two of the most commonly used norms for quantifying image similarity are L1 and L2, which are specific instances of the Minkowski metric. However, there is often not a principled reason for selecting one norm over the other. One way to address this problem is by examining whether one metric, better than the other, captures the perceptual notion of image similarity. This can be used to derive inferences regarding similarity criteria the human visual …

Priming God-Related Concepts Increases Anxiety And Task Persistence, Tina M. Toburen, Brian P. Meier

Psychology Faculty Publications

Research on the relationship between religiosity and anxiety has been mixed, with some studies revealing a positive relation and other studies revealing a negative relation. The current research used an experimental design, perhaps for the first time, to examine anxiety and task persistence during a stressful situation. Christians and Atheists/Agnostics/Others were primed with God-related or neutral (non-God related) concepts before completing an unsolvable anagram task described as a measure of verbal intelligence. The results revealed that the God-related primes increased both task persistence and anxiousness, which suggests that experimentally induced God-related thoughts caused participants to persist longer on a stressful …

Crossing The ‘Uncanny Valley’: Adaptation To Cartoon Faces Can Influence Perception Of Human Faces, Haiwen Chen, Richard Russell, Ken Nakayama, Margaret Livingstone

Psychology Faculty Publications

In this study we assessed whether there is a single face space common to both human and cartoon faces by testing whether adaptation to cartoon faces can affect perception of human faces. Participants were shown Japanese animation cartoon videos containing faces with abnormally large eyes. The use of animated videos eliminated the possibility of position-dependent retinotopic adaptation (because the faces appear at many different locations) and more closely simulated naturalistic exposure. Adaptation to cartoon faces with large eyes significantly shifted preferences for human faces toward larger eyes, consistent with a common, non-retinotopic representation for both cartoon and human faces. This …

A Sex Difference In Facial Contrast And Its Exaggeration By Cosmetics, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study demonstrates the existence of a sex difference in facial contrast. By measuring carefully controlled photographic images, female faces were shown to have greater luminance contrast between the eyes, lips, and the surrounding skin than did male faces. This sex difference in facial contrast was found to influence the perception of facial gender. An androgynous face can be made to appear female by increasing the facial contrast, or to appear male by decreasing the facial contrast. Application of cosmetics was found to consistently increase facial contrast. Female faces wearing cosmetics had greater facial contrast than the same faces not …

Computational Models Of Facial Attractiveness Judgments, P Matthew Bronstad, Judith H. Langlois, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

We designed two computational models to replicate human facial attractiveness ratings. The primary model used partial least squares (PLS) to identify image factors associated with facial attractiveness from facial images and attractiveness ratings of those images. For comparison we also made a model similar to previous models of facial attractiveness, in that it used manually derived measurements between features as inputs, though we took the additional step of dimensionality reduction via principal component analysis (PCA) and weighting of PCA dimensions via a perceptron. Strikingly, both models produced estimates of facial attractiveness that were indistinguishable from human ratings. Because PLS extracts …

Real-World Face Recognition: The Importance Of Surface Reflectance Properties, Richard Russell, Pawan Sinha

Psychology Faculty Publications

The face recognition task we perform most often in everyday experience is the identification of people with whom we are familiar. However, because of logistical challenges, most studies focus on unfamiliar-face recognition, wherein subjects are asked to match or remember images of unfamiliar people's faces. Here we explore the importance of two facial attributes - shape and surface reflectance - in the context of a familiar-face recognition task. In our experiment, subjects were asked to recognise color images of the faces of their friends. The images were manipulated such that only reflectance or only shape information was useful for recognizing …

Beauty Is In The ‘We’ Of The Beholder: Greater Agreement On Facial Attractiveness Among Close Relations, P Matthew Bronstad, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

Scientific research on facial attractiveness has focused primarily on elucidating universal factors to which all raters respond consistently. However, recent work has shown that there is also substantial disagreement between raters, highlighting the importance of determining how attractiveness preferences vary among different individuals. We conducted a typical attractiveness ratings study, but took the unusual step of recruiting pairs of subjects who were spouses, siblings, or close friends. The agreement between pairs of affiliated friends, siblings, and spouses was significantly greater than between pairs of strangers drawn from the same race and culture, providing evidence that facial-attractiveness preferences are socially organized.

Is Pigmentation Important For Face Recognition? Evidence From Contrast Negation, Richard Russell, Pawan Sinha, Irving Biederman, Marissa Nederhouser

Psychology Faculty Publications

It is extraordinarily difficult to recognize a face in an image with negated contrast, as in a photographic negative. The variation among faces can be partitioned into two general sources: (a) shape and (b) surface reflectance, here termed 'pigmentation'. To determine whether negation differentially affects the processing of shape or pigmentation, we made two sets of faces where the individual faces differed only in shape in one set and only in pigmentation in the other. Surprisingly, matching performance was significantly impaired by contrast negation only when the faces varied in pigmentation. This provides evidence that the perception of pigmentation, not …

Sex, Beauty, And The Relative Luminance Of Facial Features, Richard Russell

Psychology Faculty Publications

It has been suggested that the consistent luminance difference between the darker regions of the eyes and mouth and the lighter regions that surround them forms a pattern unique to faces. One of the more consistent uses of cosmetics to make the female face more attractive is to darken the eyes and mouth relative to the surrounding skin. The hypothesis that the size of the luminance difference between the eyes and mouth and the rest of the face affects the attractiveness of male and female faces differently was tested in four experiments in which attractiveness ratings were obtained for images …