Projects

Funding: National Science Center in Poland

Principal investigator: Michał Kuniecki

In the current project, we aim to examine how the impact of specific content categories present in the photojournalistic images, attention deployment, as well as emotional reaction evoked by their presentation guide decision process in the authenticity judgment statements regarding the “fakeness” or “realness” of photojournalistic images. Photojournalistic images shape our understanding of the socio-political world: they can convey a powerful message, playing a critical role in convincing readers about the truth value of the news release (Newman et al 2012) and even inducing false memories (Garry et al., 2007; Sacchi et al., 2007). That is because photojournalistic images are treated as proof, a self-contained piece of evidence that an event has happened (Garry et al., 2007). The importance of photographs in the news is supported by general human ability to extract meaning from pictorial information extremely fast (Bacon-Macé et al., 2005; Rousselet et al., 2005; Thorpe et al., 1996) even when presented outside of the focus of attention (Li et al., 2002; Peelen et al., 2009). Especially emotionally-loaded visual stimuli are promptly discriminated (Junghöfer et al. 2001; Schupp et al., 2004, Lähteenmäki et al 2015) even when concealed among distracting neutral stimuli (Calvo et al., 2006; Öhman et al., 2001). So far, little is known about the basis of authenticity judgment of photographic content. Studies have found non-content related features such as information source (Kasra et al., 2018) or viewers’ social media use, internet experience, and photo-editing skills (Shen et al., 2019). When it comes to direct image manipulation, our ability to discern unaltered images from the edited ones is very limited (Nightingale et al., 2017). A recent series of studies by Azevedo and colleagues (2020) has shown that image authenticity judgment can be predicted by emotional responses. The link between emotions and authenticity judgment has been shown also for textual fake news: those evoking strong negative emotions are judged as more credible (Fernández-López & Perea, 2020) and are spread more often (Wang et al., 2020). Our preliminary results also suggest that certain types of both emotional (e.g., injuries) and non-emotional (e.g., dynamic movement) content increase the perceived authenticity and that specific pattern of visual attention engagement plays a role in this process. In the current project, we aim to extend our initial findings. First, we will focus on image content using meaning maps, developed in our lab (Pilarczyk & Kuniecki 2015) combined with eye-tracking to determine what content categories present in the image promote its credence; and if attending to those content categories increases the chances of judging a given image as portraying a real event. Second, we will determine if the emotional response to the presented image, in particular, the level of physiological arousal and self-reported emotions, affects the authenticity judgment. Importantly, we will include physiological correlates of arousal and eye-tracking indices of spatial attention distribution in a single statistical model to assess their joint influence on the authenticity judgment. In a gaze-contingent experimental procedure, we will also investigate whether manipulating focus of attention on credence related content or away from it influences authenticity judgment of the whole image. Finally, using eye-tracking, we will compare the attention patterns and emotional reactions between participants holding opposite beliefs about the authenticity of the presented photographs to determine whether such beliefs could directly shape the attention engagement in the particular content. The results of this project would also have practical implications. Deeper knowledge regarding types of photographic content giving credence to misleading news might be useful for quick flagging of harmful information. To a more immediate effect, the results can be used to pick the right type of photographic content to elicit the perception of authenticity; for instance, in awareness-raising campaigns or during humanitarian crises

Funding: National Science Center in Poland

Principal investigator: Beata Pacula-Leśniak

How we perceive our environment is crucial in shaping our understanding of the world. There is growing evidence that differences in the processing of visual input occur from the earliest stages of processing, and people do not only react to the same stimulus in a different way but actually perceive something different. The specific patterns of visual attention have been observed e.g. in depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, eating disorders, and addictions. In all these cases different visual attention patterns are considered pathological factors and possible part of the mechanism of disorders persistence. The question emerges, whether differences in visual attention patterns could be observed in the non-clinical population and whether such specific patterns could be beneficial? A construct believed to constitute a base for differences in the processing of sensory input from the earliest stages is sensory sensitivity. Initially, it was defined as the capability to notice subtle differences between the stimuli, that is not caused by the sensory apparatus efficiency (e.g. visual acuity), but rather an ability to more effectively process this sensory input. Sensory sensitivity in this understanding correlates with the lowered threshold for noticing subtle differences, but also with preference to more subtle stimuli and being prone to overstimulation. Due to the latter it was more often considered a disadvantage or even a risk factor for developing a pathology, what might be surprising, as being more aware of the environment - its subtleties and changes - should lead to more tailored responses to different stimuli and better adaptation, and be rather advantageous. The adaptation aspect has been taken into consideration by more contemporary theories of sensory sensitivity (sometimes called in this context ‘environmental sensitivity'), that focus less on the sensory input processing, but rather on the more general disposition to respond to the signals from the environment the certain way, what is observed in different species. One of the theories describing high sensitivity in such frames is Elaine Aron’s Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS). According to Aron, SPS is biologically determined, increased susceptibility to all the inputs from the environment, and includes both perceptual sensitivity - being able to notice subtle stimuli and at the same time being more easily overwhelmed by intensive stimuli - and affective sensitivity, i.a. sensitivity to subtle emotional clues. Aron’s approach showed to be effective in the diagnosis and planning of psychological interventions and inspired a large number of scientific studies trying to explain the functioning of HSP. However, the relation between perceptual and emotional sensitivity is still far from clear. While there is evidence that highly sensitive persons have better performance in visual search tasks, are able to notice minor differences between pictures, and have higher reactions to emotional stimuli, that are observed in conscious evaluation results, reaction times, and neuroimaging studies, until now, there were no studies taking into consideration perceptual and emotional aspects of the stimuli at the same time. The proposed grant project aims to disentangle the relationship between the perceptual and emotional intensity of the stimulus and its impact on visual attention, conscious evaluation, and autonomic correlates of affective reaction in the context of sensory processing sensitivity. This is planned to be achieved through 1) examining the impact of perceptual intensity of stimulus on its evaluation on the level of emotional valence and arousal, as well as the autonomic indicators of emotional load (autonomic measures) 2) detailed examination of temporal and spatial characteristics of visual attention to the stimuli varying in emotional load, perceptual intensity, and both aspects combined (eye-tracking experiments) 3) examining the impact of emotional load, perceptual intensity, and both aspects combined on cognitive performance measured at the moment of stimulation (discrimination task) and with delay (memory task). All attentional and psychophysiological correlates will be measured for the groups varying in SPS, hence the potential pragmatic effect of the project will be also determining perceptual and psychophysiological correlates of the Sensory Processing Sensitivity, that may be further used as a more objective measure of the trait.

Funding: Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University

Principal investigator: Joanna Pilarczyk

On the one hand, virtual characters (bots) may be similar to people in terms of appearance and behavior, but on the other hand, they cannot be considered fully "human". The main goal of this project is to answer the question about the boundaries of the analogy between interactions with real people and interactions with virtual characters. To investigate this, I plan three lines of research covering performance-based as well as economic and moral decision-making tasks. The tasks will differ in terms of the explicitness of the correct answer (from an easy to define the appropriate solution in performance tasks to the inability to choose the only correct option in moral dilemmas) and complexity of the social situation. The main outcome of the experiments will be the answer to the question of how "humanly" are virtual characters treated. I expect that if virtual humans are treated like real people, I will observe similar behavioral patterns as when people have real social interactions. Additionally, I plan to systematically manipulate the external characteristics of a bot to find the determinants of its influence on participant's behavior. Specifically, I will attempt to achieve the level of realism (the degree to which virtual stimuli are perceived as real by the user) appropriate to induce a sense of copresence (feeling of being in a virtual world with others) and consequent influence of virtual characters on people’s behavior. The entire project will therefore answer a broader question about the possibility, scope and nature of the influence of bots on human behavior.

Radosław Sterna MA