The interplay of stress and processing of self-relevant information
Final Report Abstract
The primary objective of the project "Interplay of stress and processing of self-relevant Information" was to investigate the processing of facial (visual) self-resemblance in the context of social-emotional cues, mainly by means of startle eye-blink methodology. Three papers were published in international peer-reviewed journals. The main study results support the assumption that cues of self-resemblance are processed on a largely automatic basis and interact with the processing of emotional information. Furthermore, this study is in favor of the view that self-resemblance may facilitate the processing of facial expressions of emotion, possibly in a way biased toward positive affect. While this might partly result from higher familiarity of self-resembling faces, effects of self-resemblance appear to emerge at probably much earlier points in the processing stream, as compared to viewing of generally familiar stimuli. Taken together, the results of our studies show that facial self-resemblance has substantial effects on startle reactivity during presentation of socio-emotional pictures, pointing to a rapid modulation of emotional processing by subtle visual cues of self-relevance. However, the findings also highlight the importance of addressing the impact of certain stimulus characteristics, such as different types of facial familiarity and affective contexts, as well as varying processing strategies in greater detail in future research.
Publications
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(2017) Startling similarity: Effects of facial self-resemblance and familiarity on the processing of emotional faces. PloS one 12 (12) e0189028
Finke, Johannes B.; Larra, Mauro F.; Merz, Martina U.; Schächinger, Hartmut
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(2019) Self-Resemblance Modulates Processing of Socio-Emotional Pictures in a Context-Sensitive Manner. Journal of Psychophysiology 33 (2) 127–138
Finke, Johannes B.; Zhang, Xinwei; Best, Daniel R.; Lass-Hennemann, Johanna; Schächinger, Hartmut
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(2015). Startle eye-blink modulation by facial self-resemblance and current mood. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 96(3), 162-168
Finke, J. B., Larra, M. F., Schilling, T. M., Lass-Hennemann, J., Blumenthal, T. D., & Schächinger, H.
