RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 A smile hampers encoding and memory for non-happy eyes in a face: temporal dynamics and importance of initial fixation
A1 Gutiérrez García, Aida
A1 Líbano Miralles, Mario del
A1 Fernández-Martín, Andrés
A1 Gutiérrez Calvo, Manuel
K1 Smile
K1 Facial expression
K1 Non-happy eyes
K1 Blended expressions
K1 Time course
K1 Psicología
K1 Psychology
K1 Expresión facial
K1 Facial expression
AB Blended facial expressions with a smiling mouth but non-happy eyes (neutral, sad, etc.) are often (incorrectly) judged as “happy”. We investigated the time course of this phenomenon, both forward and backward. To do this, we varied the order of presentation of a prime stimulus (upper half of a face) and a probe (lower half of a face) stimulus, and their display durations. The forward and the backward influence of the smile was assessed when the mouth was seen before or after the eyes. Participants categorised the eye expression when the mouth and the eyes were congruent or incongruent. Results showed that, as a forward prime, a smiling mouth biased the recognition of incongruent (non-happy) eyes as if they were happy. The effect started as early as 100 ms and dissipated by 1000 ms. As a backward prime, the smile also biased recognition of non-happy eye expressions as happy for at least the first 300 ms. These results suggest, respectively, that the presence of a smiling mouth impairs the accurate encoding and memory for non-happy eyes. Angry eyes are the least susceptible to this effect, probably due to their distinctiveness. An alternative response (rather than sensitivity) bias was partially ruled out.
PB Routledge
SN 0269-9931
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10259/11455
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10259/11455
LA eng
NO This research was supported by Grant PSI2014-54720-P from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, awarded to Manuel G. Calvo.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos
RD 23-may-2026