Kyoshiro Sasaki

Scents boost preference for novel fruits

When faced with a novel food, multisensory information that includes appearance and smell is a very important cue for preference, categorization, and the decision of whether or not to eat it. We elucidated whether olfactory information leads to biased visual categorization of and preference for fruits, even when odors are presented subliminally. We employed morphed images of strawberries and tomatoes combined with their corresponding odorants as stimuli. Participants were asked to categorize the images into either of two categories, to evaluate their preference for each visual image, and to judge the presence/absence of the odor. Results demonstrated that visual categorization was not affected by the odor manipulation; however, preference for uncategorizable images increased when odors were presented regardless of the participants awareness of the odor. Our findings suggest that visual preference for novel fruits is based on both conscious and unconscious olfactory processing regarding edibility.

Emotional Sounds Influence Vertical Vection

While viewing a large vertically moving sinusoidal luminance grating, the perception of upward self-motion (vection) was modulated by positive sounds (eg a babys laughter). This may be because positive emotion and the spatial metaphor of vertical directions were unified in the mind.

Post-determined emotion: motor action retrospectively modulates emotional valence of visual images

Upward and downward motor actions influence subsequent and ongoing emotional processing in accordance with a space–valence metaphor: positive is up/negative is down. In this study, we examined whether upward and downward motor actions could also affect previous emotional processing. Participants were shown an emotional image on a touch screen. After the image disappeared, they were required to drag a centrally located dot towards a cued area, which was either in the upper or lower portion of the screen. They were then asked to rate the emotional valence of the image using a 7-point scale. We found that the emotional valence of the image was more positive when the cued area was located in the upper portion of the screen. However, this was the case only when the dragging action was required immediately after the image had disappeared. Our findings suggest that when somatic information that is metaphorically associated with an emotion is linked temporally with a visual event, retrospective emotional integration between the visual and somatic events occurs.

Emotion biases voluntary vertical action only with visible cues

Emotional information influences our bodily experiences according to the space-valence metaphor (positive/negative is up/down). In the present study, we examined whether visible and invisible emotional stimuli could also modulate voluntary action. After observing an emotional image (e.g., positive, neutral, or negative), participants used a joystick to arbitrarily position a dot stimulus in a display. The emotional image was either masked (masked condition) or not (unmasked condition) via a continuous flash suppression technique, i.e., dynamic interocular masking. We found that in the unmasked condition, the placed position of the dot was significantly higher after observing the positive image compared with the negative image, but this difference was not present in the masked condition. Our findings suggest that conscious emotional information is necessary for activating sensorimotor representations of vertical directions, and voluntary action is performed based on these activations.

The Difference in Speed Sequence Influences Perceived Duration

Perceived duration of a moving stimulus increases with the speed of the motion. However, a recent study found that the perceived duration of a decelerating stimulus was longer than that of an accelerating one, even though their averaged speed was identical (Matthews 2011 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 37 1617–1627). We conducted three experiments to discover how this speed-change-induced time distortion occurs. We found that the perceived duration of a decelerating motion was longer than that of an accelerating one both in sub-second and supra-second presentation duration conditions, when speed changed linearly over time (experiment 1). The differences could not be explained by the differences in average perceived speed between them (experiment 2). Moreover, the perceived duration of a decelerating motion was also longer than that of an accelerating one, even when speed changed once during the presentation duration (experiment 3). These results suggest that average speed differences in the early and late parts of the presentation duration are important for the occurrence of the speed-change-induced time distortion.

When categorization-based stranger avoidance explains the uncanny valley: A comment on MacDorman and Chattopadhyay (2016)

Artificial objects often subjectively look eerie when their appearance to some extent resembles a human, which is known as the uncanny valley phenomenon. From a cognitive psychology perspective, several explanations of the phenomenon have been put forth, two of which are object categorization and realism inconsistency. Recently, MacDorman and Chattopadhyay (2016) reported experimental data as evidence in support of the latter. In our estimation, however, their results are still consistent with categorization-based stranger avoidance. In this Discussions paper, we try to describe why categorization-based stranger avoidance remains a viable explanation, despite the evidence of MacDorman and Chattopadhyay, and how it offers a more inclusive explanation of the impression of eeriness in the uncanny valley phenomenon.

Trypophobic discomfort is spatial-frequency dependent

Clusters of holes, such as those in a lotus seedpod, induce trypophobic discomfort. Previous research has demonstrated that high-contrast energy at midrange spatial frequencies in images causes trypophobic discomfort. The present study examined the effects on discomfort of eliminating various spatial frequency components from the images to reveal how each spatial frequency contributes to the discomfort. Experiment 1 showed that eliminating midrange spatial frequencies did not affect trypophobic discomfort, while Experiment 2 revealed that images of holes that consisted of only high-spatial frequencies evoked less discomfort than other images and that images containing only low or midrange spatial frequencies induced as much trypophobic discomfort as did the original images. Finally, Experiment 3 found that participants with a high level of the trypophobic trait experienced stronger discomfort from the original images and the images containing only low or midrange spatial frequencies than participants with a low level of the trypophobic trait. Our findings thus suggest that trypophobic discomfort can be induced by middle and low spatial frequencies.

Involuntary protection against dermatosis: A preliminary observation on trypophobia

ObjectiveTrypophobia refers to the intense negative emotions evoked by exposure to repeated visual patterns like a honeycomb. We propose a cognitive mechanism that can explain why such negative emotions are triggered by trypophobic objects, primarily through automatic and involuntary avoidance of skin diseases, which is also called as the Involuntary Protection Against Dermatosis (IPAD) hypothesis.ResultsWe asked 856 participants to evaluate the discomfort evoked by trypophobic images and to report their past and current skin-related medical problems. Results showed that participants with a history of skin problems rated the pictures as evoking high discomfort as compared to those without skin problems. We conducted another survey to replicate the original survey using additional 690 participants, which confirmed the reliability of the current findings. The current study presents preliminary observational data that supports the IPAD hypothesis and suggests ways to reduce maladaptive emotional reactions toward trypophobic objects.

Avoidance of novelty contributes to the uncanny valley

A hypothesis suggests that objects with a high degree of visual similarity to real humans trigger negative impressions (i.e., the uncanny valley). Previous studies have suggested that difficulty in object categorization elicits negative emotional reactions to enable the avoidance of potential threats. The present study further investigated this categorization-difficulty hypothesis. In an experiment, observers categorized morphed images of photographs and human doll faces as “photograph” or “doll” and evaluated the perceived eeriness of the images. Additionally, we asked the observers to answer questionnaires on behavioral inhibition systems (BIS). The results indicated that individual differences in the BIS score were associated with enhanced eeriness in the objects with a specific human likeness. These findings suggest that the tendency to avoid a potentially threatening novel experience contributes to promoting the perceived eeriness of objects with some degree of visual similarity to real humans.

‘‘Close, and ye shall find’’: eye closure during thinking enhances creativity

Facilitation of creative thinking is an important element for innovation. It has been suggested that cognitive resources are involved in creative thinking; however, little evidence of this involvement has been found. To address this issue, the present study focuses on eye closure, which saves more cognitive resources than open eyes. Forty participants experienced both close-eyed and open-eyed conditions, and all of them were asked to generate new names for rice and tea. The results revealed that in the close-eyed condition, participants generated 1.6-times more divergent (unrestricted and flexible) ideas than in the open-eyed condition, suggesting that closing eyes during thinking enhances creativity. Our findings provide empirical evidence for the necessity of cognitive resources in creative thinking.