Papers by Piotr Winkielman
Frontiers in neurorobotics, 2018
Facial actions are key elements of non-verbal behavior. Perceivers' reactions to others' ... more Facial actions are key elements of non-verbal behavior. Perceivers' reactions to others' facial expressions often represent a match or mirroring (e.g., they smile to a smile). However, the information conveyed by an expression depends on context. Thus, when shown by an opponent, a smile conveys bad news and evokes frowning. The availability of anthropomorphic agents capable of facial actions raises the question of how people respond to such agents in social context. We explored this issue in a study where participants played a strategic game with or against a facially expressive android. Electromyography (EMG) recorded participants' reactions over zygomaticus muscle (smiling) and corrugator muscle (frowning). We found that participants' facial responses to android's expressions reflect their informational value, rather than a direct match. Overall, participants smiled more, and frowned less, when winning than losing. Critically, participants' responses to the...
Niniejsza praca eksploruje procesy emocji i poznania spoÅ‚ecznego w kontekÅ›cie oceniania mimicznej... more Niniejsza praca eksploruje procesy emocji i poznania spoÅ‚ecznego w kontekÅ›cie oceniania mimicznej ekspresji emocji. Prezentowane badanie sprawdza, czy poznawczy wysiÅ‚ek zwiÄ…zany z kategoryzacjÄ… ekspresji twarzy wpÅ‚ywa na wnioskowanie o czytelność intencji aktora i także na chęć jego bliższego poznania przez obserwatora. ZakÅ‚adano, że ekspresja emocji podstawowych jest Å‚atwo przetwarzana (szybko kategoryzowana), a osoba jÄ… prezentujÄ…ca – Å‚atwo oceniana (np. ktoÅ› z wyrazem zÅ‚oÅ›ci – jako agresywny, z wyrazem radoÅ›ci – jako miÅ‚y). Jednak nieczytelne/mieszane wyrazy mimiczne sÄ… trudne w przetwarzaniu (wolno kategoryzowane), co wywoÅ‚uje negatywnÄ… reakcjÄ™ i sÄ…dy. W trakcie eksperymentu uczestnikom pokazywano zdjÄ™cia twarzy, ktĂ³rych ekspresje komputerowo zmodyfikowano, przechodzÄ…c w 14 krokach od zÅ‚oÅ›ci do radoÅ›ci. Zadanie polegaÅ‚o na jak najszybszej kategoryzacji wyrażanej emocji (zÅ‚ość lub radość), a nastÄ™pnie badany oceniaÅ‚ cechy widzianej twarzy (tj. jak czytelne sÄ… intencje osoby oraz ...
Emotion, 2015
Facial features influence social evaluations. For example, faces are rated as more attractive and... more Facial features influence social evaluations. For example, faces are rated as more attractive and trustworthy when they have more smiling features and also more female features. However, the influence of facial features on evaluations should be qualified by the affective consequences of fluency (cognitive ease) with which such features are processed. Further, fluency (along with its affective consequences) should depend on whether the current task highlights conflict between specific features. Four experiments are presented. In 3 experiments, participants saw faces varying in expressions ranging from pure anger, through mixed expression, to pure happiness. Perceivers first categorized faces either on a control dimension, or an emotional dimension (angry/happy). Thus, the emotional categorization task made "pure" expressions fluent and "mixed" expressions disfluent. Next, participants made social evaluations. Results show that after emotional categorization, but not control categorization, targets with mixed expressions are relatively devalued. Further, this effect is mediated by categorization disfluency. Additional data from facial electromyography reveal that on a basic physiological level, affective devaluation of mixed expressions is driven by their objective ambiguity. The fourth experiment shows that the relative devaluation of mixed faces that vary in gender ambiguity requires a gender categorization task. Overall, these studies highlight that the impact of facial features on evaluation is qualified by their fluency, and that the fluency of features is a function of the current task. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for research on emotional reactions to ambiguity. (PsycINFO Database Record
PloS one, 2016
Individuals that combine features of both genders-gender blends-are sometimes appealing and somet... more Individuals that combine features of both genders-gender blends-are sometimes appealing and sometimes not. Heretofore, this difference was explained entirely in terms of sexual selection. In contrast, we propose that part of individuals' preference for gender blends is due to the cognitive effort required to classify them, and that such effort depends on the context in which a blend is judged. In two studies, participants judged the attractiveness of male-female morphs. Participants did so after classifying each face in terms of its gender, which was selectively more effortful for gender blends, or classifying faces on a gender-irrelevant dimension, which was equally effortful for gender blends. In both studies, gender blends were disliked when, and only when, the faces were first classified by gender, despite an overall preference for feminine features in all conditions. Critically, the preferences were mediated by the effort of stimulus classification. The results suggest that...
Encyclopedia of Consciousness, 2009
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2010
Our modeling approach seeks to better understand the computational dynamics of the affective and ... more Our modeling approach seeks to better understand the computational dynamics of the affective and cognitive systems. One experimental phenomenon open to such dynamical analysis is "affective priming" --or the influence of a prior stimulus on subsequent affective processing. In this type of procedure, 'assimilation priming' refers to when the response to the target is biased in favor of the prime, such as with brief or minimally attended primes. However, following long durations or highly attended primes, the response to the target is often biased against the prime, which is termed 'contrast priming'.
Can mouth movements shape attitudes? When people articulate different consonants (e.g., B or K) t... more Can mouth movements shape attitudes? When people articulate different consonants (e.g., B or K) they press the tongue and the lips against various spots in the mouth. This allows for construction of words that feature systematic wanderings of consonantal stricture spots either from the front to the rear (inward; e.g., BENOKA) or from the rear to the front (outward; e.g., KENOBA) of the mouth. These wanderings of muscular strictures resemble the oral kinematics during either deglution (swallowing-like, inward movement) or expectoration (spitting-like, outward movement). Thus, we predicted that the articulation of inward and outward words induces motivational states associated with deglutition and expectorationnamely, approach and avoidance-which was tested in 9 experiments (total N Ï 822). Inward words were preferred over outward words, being labeled as nonsense words (Experiments 1, 4, 5, 6, and 9), company names (Experiment 2), or person names (Experiments 3, 7, and 8), with control words falling in between (Experiment 5). As a social-behavioral consequence, ostensible chat partners were more often chosen to interact with when having inward compared to outward names (Experiment 7). The effect was found in German-speaking (Experiments 1-5) and English-speaking (Experiment 6) samples, and it occurred even under silent reading (all experiments) and for negatively labeled targets (names of villains; Experiment 8). Showing articulation simulations as being the causal undercurrent, this effect was absent in aphasia patients who lacked covert subvocalizations (Experiment 9).
Journal of cognitive neuroscience, Jan 5, 2015
There is a lively and theoretically important debate about whether, how, and when embodiment cont... more There is a lively and theoretically important debate about whether, how, and when embodiment contributes to language comprehension. This study addressed these questions by testing how interference with facial action impacts the brain's real-time response to emotional language. Participants read sentences about positive and negative events (e.g., "She reached inside the pocket of her coat from last winter and found some (cash/bugs) inside it.") while ERPs were recorded. Facial action was manipulated within participants by asking participants to hold chopsticks in their mouths using a position that allowed or blocked smiling, as confirmed by EMG. Blocking smiling did not influence ERPs to the valenced words (e.g., cash, bugs) but did influence ERPs to final words of sentences describing positive events. Results show that affectively positive sentences can evoke smiles and that such facial action can facilitate the semantic processing indexed by the N400 component. Overal...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2015
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2015
Understanding others' actions is essential for functioning in the physical and social world. In t... more Understanding others' actions is essential for functioning in the physical and social world. In the past two decades research has shown that action perception involves the motor system, supporting theories that we understand others' behavior via embodied motor simulation. Recently, empirical approach to action perception has been facilitated by using well-controlled artificial stimuli, such as robots. One broad question this approach can address is what aspects of similarity between the observer and the observed agent facilitate motor simulation. Since humans have evolved among other humans and animals, using artificial stimuli such as robots allows us to probe whether our social perceptual systems are specifically tuned to process other biological entities. In this study, we used humanoid robots with different degrees of human-likeness in appearance and motion along with electromyography (EMG) to measure muscle activity in participants' arms while they either observed or imitated videos of three agents produce actions with their right arm. The agents were a Human (biological appearance and motion), a Robot (mechanical appearance and motion), and an Android (biological appearance and mechanical motion). Right arm muscle activity increased when participants imitated all agents. Increased muscle activation was found also in the stationary arm both during imitation and observation. Furthermore, muscle activity was sensitive to motion dynamics: activity was significantly stronger for imitation of the human than both mechanical agents. There was also a relationship between the dynamics of the muscle activity and motion dynamics in stimuli. Overall our data indicate that motor simulation is not limited to observation and imitation of agents with a biological appearance, but is also found for robots. However we also found sensitivity to human motion in the EMG responses. Combining data from multiple methods allows us to obtain a more complete picture of action understanding and the underlying neural computations.
2012 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and Epigenetic Robotics (ICDL), 2012
Abstract Facial expressions play an important role in human emotional communication. Observers&#x... more Abstract Facial expressions play an important role in human emotional communication. Observers' reactions to facial expressions can be simple (eg, smiling to a smile). However, they can also reflect the contextual meaning of an expression (eg, smiling to an opponent's frown). Our current study provides evidence for contextual modulation of human responses to facial expressions of a hyper-realistic android. Such modulation occurred when human participants engaged in a strategic game with or against a facially expressive robot. These ...
APA handbook of personality and social psychology, Volume 1: Attitudes and social cognition., 2015
ABSTRACT In this chapter, we first consider the respective roles of unconscious, conscious, and m... more ABSTRACT In this chapter, we first consider the respective roles of unconscious, conscious, and metaconscious processes. We then focus on two topic areas that have revealed the value of a tripartite distinction of consciousness: mind-wandering and awareness of emotions. Last, we consider some future directions in which consideration of the construct of meta-awareness may prove particularly fruitful, including (a) the cultivation of mindfulness, (b) unwanted thoughts (motivated processes may influence whether unwanted thoughts reach meta-awareness), and (c) stereotyping and stereotype threat (the disruption associated with this process may be underpinned by mind-wandering episodes occurring below the threshold of meta-awareness). Collectively, this chapter suggests that distinguishing among unconscious, conscious, and metaconscious processes may help to illuminate a host of topics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)
Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, 2009
Article Outline Glossary I. Definition of the Subject and Its Importance II. Introduction III. Ps... more Article Outline Glossary I. Definition of the Subject and Its Importance II. Introduction III. Psychological evidence for the role of fluency in evaluation IV. Computational Mechanisms V. Modeling fluency-affect interactions VI. Neural basis of fluency -affect connection VII. Future directions VIII. Bibliography
The SAGE Handbook of Social Cognition The SAGE handbook of social cognition, 2012
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2014
Journal of experimental psychology. General, 2014
Major theories propose that spontaneous responding to others' actions involves mirroring, or ... more Major theories propose that spontaneous responding to others' actions involves mirroring, or direct matching. Responding to facial expressions is assumed to follow this matching principle: People smile to smiles and frown to frowns. We demonstrate here that social power fundamentally changes spontaneous facial mimicry of emotional expressions, thereby challenging the direct-matching principle. Participants induced into a high-power (HP), low-power (LP), or neutral state watched dynamic happy and angry expressions from HP and LP targets while we measured facial electromyography (fEMG) over the zygomaticus major ("smiling muscle") and corrugator supercilii ("frowning muscle"). For smiling, LP participants smiled to all targets, regardless of their expression. In contrast, HP participants exhibited standard smile mimicry toward LP targets but did not mimic the smiles of HP targets. Instead, HP participants smiled more when those HP targets expressed anger. For f...
Psychological science, 2010
People often prefer familiar stimuli, presumably because familiarity signals safety. This prefere... more People often prefer familiar stimuli, presumably because familiarity signals safety. This preference can occur with merely repeated old stimuli, but it is most robust with new but highly familiar prototypes of a known category (beauty-in-averageness effect). However, is familiarity always warm? Tuning accounts of mood hold that positive mood signals a safe environment, whereas negative mood signals an unsafe environment. Thus, the value of familiarity should depend on mood. We show that compared with a sad mood, a happy mood eliminates the preference for familiar stimuli, as shown in measures of self-reported liking and physiological measures of affect (electromyographic indicator of spontaneous smiling). The basic effect of exposure on preference and its modulation by mood were most robust for prototypes (category averages). All this occurs even though prototypes might be more familiar in a happy mood. We conclude that mood changes the hedonic implications of familiarity cues.
People's wanting and liking reactions reflect not only high-level beliefs, but also the operation... more People's wanting and liking reactions reflect not only high-level beliefs, but also the operation of rudimentary biopsychological processes. Previous studies suggest that the following wanting and liking processes may be relevant to political behavior: irrational wanting (where wanting is triggered by activation of the brain dopamine system and becomes dissociated from liking); unconscious liking and wanting (where evaluative judgments and behavior are modified without awareness of the eliciting affective stimuli or of the underlying affective response); and fluency-based liking (where preferences are influenced by the ease of stimulus processing). This review suggests how conceptual and methodological tools from affective neuroscience and psychophysiology can refine our understanding of basic affective and motivational processes that shape political attitudes and choices.
Social neuroscience, Jan 9, 2015
According to embodied cognition theories, concepts are contextually situated and grounded in neur... more According to embodied cognition theories, concepts are contextually situated and grounded in neural systems that produce experiential states. This view predicts that processing mental state concepts recruits neural regions associated with different aspects of experience depending on the context in which people understand a concept. This neuroimaging study tested this prediction using a set of sentences that described emotional (e.g., fear, joy) and nonemotional (e.g., thinking, hunger) mental states with internal focus (i.e., focusing on bodily sensations and introspection) or external focus (i.e., focusing on expression and action). Consistent with our predictions, data suggested that the inferior frontal gyrus, a region associated with action representation, was engaged more by external than internal sentences. By contrast, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a region associated with the generation of internal states, was engaged more by internal emotion sentences than external se...
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Papers by Piotr Winkielman