Associations Between Affect And Spatial Perception

The association of affect with vertical position is a frequent occurrence in mainstream culture. Objects that are up are often considered to be positive, whereas objects that are down are often considered to be negative. In recent years, the development of embodied cognition made us know the association of affect with vertical position better. Different from the traditional cognition theory, the embodied cognition theory emphases the important role of the body played in cognitive processing, among which, the conception metaphor theory and the perceptual symbol system theory are two of the most typical explanations accounting for the association of affect with vertical position. The present research is based on the general point of these two theories---embodiment of conception---to explore the association of affect with spatial perception.The present research consists of5experiments. Experiment1～4used Stroop-like interference paradigm to explore the role of the body played in the relations between affect and vertical position. Experiment1and experiment2changed screen backgrounds (upright natural scene, upside natural scene) and priming human bodies (upright figures, upside figures) respectively to manipulate participants’spatial perception. The results indicated that when the background was upright natural scene or the trial was primed by upright figures, participants evaluated positive faces faster if presented in the upper (vs. lower) position, whereas participants evaluated negative faces faster if presented in the lower (vs. upper) position. When the background was upside natural scene or the trial was primed by upside figures, however, participants showed no difference in evaluations of positive faces (upper vs. lower position) and negative faces (upper vs. lower position). Experiment3used left-right task to manipulate participants’spatial perception. The results indicated that in the upright figures’ left-right task, participants evaluated positive faces faster if presented in the upper (vs. lower) position, whereas participants evaluated negative faces faster if presented in the lower (vs. upper) position. The reverse occurred in the upside figures’left-right task. Experiment4changed participants’posture (head-upright, head-tilt) to manipulate spatial perception. The results indicated that participants with head-tilt evaluated positive faces faster if presented in the upper-left (vs. upper) position, whereas participants evaluated negative faces faster if presented in the lower-right (vs. lower) position. Participants with head-upright showed no difference in evaluations of positive faces (upper vs. upper-left) and negative faces (lower vs. lower-right). Experiment5used continuous priming paradigm to explore the predictive power of facial position and facial valence to attention bias. The results indicated that upper faces activated lower areas of visual space and lower faces activated upper areas of visual space in short SOA while positive faces activated upper areas of visual space and negative faces activated lower areas of visual space in long SOA.The research suggests a possibility that affect is associated with spatial perception. Positive affect is associated with "up" and negative affect is associated with "down", whereas the "up" and "down" are based on people’s spatial perception instead of real physical space. In addition, when the spatial representation of facial valence contradicts with the facial position, their predictive power to attention bias will be mediated by time. The facial position predicts attention bias in short SOA while the facial valence predicts attention bias in long SOA.