Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


BGSU_Dissertations_0440_Dixon.pdf (3.07 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Right Hemisphere Specialization for Face Recognition: A Test of an Emotional Versus a Visuospatial Processing Model

Dixon, Michael S.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048510067

Abstract Details

1977, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Psychology.
This experiment investigated two models for explaining left visual field superiority (LVFS) on a face recognition task. The first model proposes that emotional memories are preferentially stored in the right hemisphere; thus, a subject who responds emotionally to a face will utilize right hemisphere storage mechanisms, resulting in LVFS. The alternative model postulates that spatial memory is mediated by the right hemisphere, especially in males. With the additional assumption that faces which project manifest facial affect are more complex spatially than neutral faces, the second model ascribes LVFS for emotional faces to the factor of spatial complexity. Face stimuli were photographs of four faces previously judged to be relatively lacking in affect. Male and female subjects first committed to memory two "target" faces, and then received unilateral tachistoscopic presentation of test faces. The subject's task was to indicate whether the test face was the "same" (target) or "different", using a manual button-pressing response. Two sets of instructions were used to evaluate the effects of emotion on the latency of this response. Subjects were asked to imagine that the persons whose faces they memorized were either depressed and unhappy ("emotional" instructions), or relaxed and at ease ("neutral" instructions). The results indicated that: (1) emotionally-instructed, but not neutrally-instructed, females exhibited LVFS; (2) contrary to expectation, males failed to exhibit LVFS in either instructional condition; (3) regardless of instructional condition or sex, subjects who had an emotional response to the faces (as measured by subject's rating on an emotional-unemotional bipolar scale) exhibited LVFS; and (4) males, but not females, who rated faces as "unemotional" tended to have RVFS. It was concluded that the results supported the "emotional memory" model and infirmed the "spatial complexity" model for explaining LVFS for emotional face stimuli. Additionally, the results suggested the need for reexamination of the hypotheses that unemotional faces are stored in right hemisphere memory loci and that males are more right hemisphere lateralized for spatial processing than females.
Walter F. McKeever (Advisor)
Psychology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dixon, M. S. (1977). Right Hemisphere Specialization for Face Recognition: A Test of an Emotional Versus a Visuospatial Processing Model [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048510067

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dixon, Michael. Right Hemisphere Specialization for Face Recognition: A Test of an Emotional Versus a Visuospatial Processing Model. 1977. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048510067.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dixon, Michael. "Right Hemisphere Specialization for Face Recognition: A Test of an Emotional Versus a Visuospatial Processing Model." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1977. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463048510067

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1566463048510067
195
This document is provided by Bowling Green State University for research and educational purposes, and may be under copyright by the author or the author's heirs. Please contact the ETD Center administrator at Bowling Green State University etd@bgsu.edu with any questions or comments. In your email, be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items you are inquiring about.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.