ABSTRACT
We examined the interaction among emotions, spatial frequencies (SF) and holistic analysis using an anorthoscopic paradigm, which is supposed to alter the holistic processing. Emotional and neutral faces were presented sliding behind a narrow aperture (anorthoscopy), or statically in the centre of the screen (whole-face presentation) as broadband images (Experiment 1), filtered at low-SF (Experiment 2), and “hybrids” (emotional low-SF superimposed to neutral high-SF of the same face; Experiment 3). Participants were required to evaluate how “friendly” each stimulus appeared (an indirect measure of emotion processing). These manipulations were aimed at investigating holistic accounts of emotional faces. Friendliness judgments decreased when low-SF and hybrid faces were presented anorthoscopically, possibly due to the impoverished presentation, in which a part-based analysis prevails on a global-based analysis. Although anorthoscopy does not prevent emotion processing, it alters holistic processing of emotional stimuli, confirming the complex interaction among emotions, SF and stimulus presentation.
Acknowledgements
We thank Francesca Bruno who helped us in recruiting and testing participants. VT designed the paradigm, collected and analysed the data and wrote the draft, VT and GP interpreted the data, GP and LT critically revised the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
None of the data or materials for the experiments reported here is available, and none of the experiments was preregistered.