title: Priming effects for affective vs. neutral faces.
abstract: Affective and Neutral Tasks (faces with negative or neutral content, with different lighting and orientation) requiring reaction time judgments of poser identity were administered to 32 participants. Speed and accuracy were better for the Affective than Neutral Task, consistent with literature suggesting facilitation of performance by affective content. Priming effects were significant for the Affective but not Neutral Task. An Explicit Post-Test indicated no conscious knowledge of the stimulus frequency that was associated with performance facilitation. Faster performance by female vs. male participants, and differential speeds and susceptibility to priming of different emotions were also found. Anger and shock were responded to most rapidly and accurately in several conditions, showed no gender differences, and showed significant priming for both RT and accuracy. Fear and pain were responded to least accurately, were associated with faster female than male reaction time, and the accuracy data showed a kind of reverse priming.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Fordham University, 441 E. Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458, USA. Burton@Fordham.edu
authors.forename: Leslie A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rabin
authors.forename: Gwinne
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wyatt
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frohlich
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernstein Vardy
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dimitri
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012737:Sex Factors