The impact of blocking the activation of facial muscles in the processing of subsequent emotional infromation, and its mechanism

Domingos, Ana Maria Basílio Cabral

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/1739

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Domingos, Ana Maria Basílio Cabral

Abstract(s)

In this thesis we focus on how previous activation of the representation of an emotional state impacts the processing of subsequent emotional information (within a priming paradigm). Our approach is guided by an embodied perspective on cognition. According to embodied cognition theories, affective representations are partial simulations of emotional experience (Niedenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman, Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2005). Among other simulations, re-enacting an emotion may involve the activation of correspondent facial motor activation. In the present work, we directly approach the hypothesis that facial muscle activation has a role in emotional category priming effects within a blocking paradigm. However, because blocking may still allow partial muscle activity, we first address muscular specificities of a facial muscular blocking procedure. Our first experimental approaches aimed to establish the proper methodology used to test our hypothesis. Experiment 1 addresses our hypothesis within an emotional category priming paradigm similar to the one used by Carroll and Young (2005) and, establishes the proper temporal window to observe the effect. Resutls show a general emotional priming effect, such that all emotional faces impacted all, and only, emotional targets judgment (both congruent and incongruent). This indicates that perceiving emotional primes facilitates emotional judgments of emotional stimuli in general. Our second Experiment aimed to define the muscular specificities of a blocking procedure (Niedenthal, Brauer, Halberstadt, & Innes-Ker, 2001) necessary to address the role of muscle activation in the observed priming effects. Assuming that the blocking procedure may exert different influences on different muscle’s activation, we characterized this procedure in terms of promotion of muscle activation over zygomaticus major, orbicularis oris and corrugator supercilii. Results corroborate that blocking exerts different effect for different muscles, suggesting that its effect on emotion priming effects may be moderated by the type of emotion primed. Experiment 3, replicated the procedure of Experiment 1, including an additional blocking condition, in order to test the embodiment hypothesis. In this experiment, as well as a general emotion priming effect, we also found some evidence of category emotional priming effects qualified by type of emotion. There was a clear congruency effect for happiness, and a generalized effect for sadness (both for congruent and incongruent trials). As expected, these effects suffered an interference from the facial muscle blocking manipulation (Niedenthal et al., 2001). This supports the hypothesis that muscle facial activation plays a role in the mechanism through which emotional category priming effect occurs. However, under blocking conditions, priming effects only disappeared for happy prime-target pairs. Priming effects became stronger for sadness and anger. These differences seem to be explained by the fact that the blocking procedure (Experiment 2, 4 and 5) has a preponderant blocking impact over the zygomaticus major (the muscle of smiling), and a different impact over muscles associated with other emotions. As it becomes more clear in Experiment 4 and 5, blocking manipulation increased the variability observed in the orbicularis oris, activation. We, thus argue that these different effects of blocking explain why negative emotions may have had a stronger priming effect in Experiment 3, under blocking. Results are discussed in terms of implications for embodiment theories and in terms of methodological implications for futher research making use of blocking procedures.