TITLE:
Effects of Emotional Valence (Positive or Negative Visual Images) and Arousal Levels (High or Low Arousal Levels) on the Useful Field of View
AUTHORS:
Naoko Masuda
KEYWORDS:
Central, Peripheral, Arousal Level, Emotional Valence, Positive, Negative, Useful Field of View (UFOV)
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.6 No.4,
March
26,
2015
ABSTRACT: One of two emotional valence (positive or negative) images and two
arousal (high or low) images was presented for 500 ms to participants. After
the image vanished from the screen, a letter was presented in the central
visual field, while a number was also presented in one of the peripheral visual
fields (upper right, upper left, bottom right, and bottom left). There were
four conditions of degree of eccentricity of the presented number. The
participants identified both the letter and number simultaneously. By
calculating the correct performance rate of the peripheral identification task,
the range of the useful field of view (UFOV) was speculated. Results showed that performance
rates of the central and peripheral tasks were worse for the high arousal,
negative emotion stimuli compared with the other three conditions. Moreover,
performance rates of the peripheral task were better for the positive emotion
conditions than those for the negative emotion conditions when the stimulus
eccentricities were 3 or 12 degrees. We concluded that the range of the UFOV could
be affected by the interaction between the emotional valence and arousal level
of visual stimuli. This study was the first report that emotional valence and
arousal level interacted each other and did affect our human visual cognition.