Communication Sciences/Psychology

"Senders" viewed 25 emotionally loaded color slides. Their facial expressions were observed via a hidden television camera by "observers" who made judgments about the nature of each slide and the sender's reaction to it. A total of 64 undergraduates were arranged in eight pairings each of females sending to male observers, females sending to females, males sending to males,
and males sending to females. Statistically significant communication was demonstrated, with females being more accurate senders than males. More accurate senders tended to show a smaller skin conductance and heart rate response to the slides and a more "personal" verbal report of their emotional
reaction to the slides. Several personality measures were related to communication accuracy and physiological responding.

This typology of biological affects is based on developmental-interactionist theory of motivation, emotion, and cognition. Affects—subjectively experienced feelings and desires—involve interoceptive perceptual systems based on primordial molecules that characterize neurochemicals. Biological affects involve primary motivational-emotional systems (primes) associated with hierarchically organized neurochemical systems in the brain, including subcortical (reptilian) and paleocortical (limbic) brain
structures. Affects fulfill individualistic (selfish) functions (arousal, approach-avoidance, agonistic) and prosocial (cooperative) functions. Selfish and cooperative functions are associated respectively with the right and left hemispheres. Biological affects constitute the physiological bases for higher level affects: social affects (e.g., pride, guilt, shame, pity, jealousy), cognitive affects (e.g., curiosity, surprise), and
moral affects.

The facial feedback hypothesis, that skeletal muscle feedback from facial expressions plays a causal role in regulating emotional experience and behavior, is an important part of several contemporary theories of emotion. A review of relevant
research indicates that studies reporting support for this hypothesis have, without exception, used within-subjects designs and that therefore only a restricted version of the hypothesis has been tested. Also, the results of some of these studies must be questioned due to demand characteristics and other problems.
It is suggested that visceral feedback may make a more direct contribution to emotional processes than facial feedback does and that the "readout" functions of facial expressions are more important than any feedback functions.

A paradigm was tested for measuring the tendency of children to send accurate nonverbal signals to others via spontaneous facial expressions and gestures. This paradigm was derived from studies on adults that suggest that women are more accurate nonverbal "senders" than men in certain situations. Eighteen male and 11 female preschoolers (aged 4 to 6 years) watched a series. of emotionally loaded color slides while they were observed via a hidden television camera by their mothers. Videotapes of the child were later observed by groups of undergraduates. Results indicated that significant overall communication occurred, with large individual differences in "sending ability" between children. There was no evidence of a large sex difference in sending ability in children, although on one measure girls were more accurate senders than boys when viewed by undergraduates. Sending ability was positively related to teacher's ratings of activ.ty level, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, bossiness, sociability, etc., and negatively related to shyness, cooperation, emotional inhibition and control, etc.

A slide-viewing paradigm measuring the tendency to communicate accurate nonverbal messages via spontaneous facial expressions and gestures was applied to 13 male and 11 female preschoolers (aged 4-6 years). The children watched
16 emotionally loaded color slides while, unknown to them, their mothers viewed their reactions via television. The children's skin conductance (SC) was monitored during the experiment, and they had been rated by two teachers on a new scale of affect expression developed from Jones' externahzer/internalizer
distinction. High communication accuracy was associated with low SC responding. Rated expressiveness was associated with high communication accuracy and low SC responding. Sex differences appeared in the pattern of relations between the affect expression scale and the measures of communication
accuracy and SC response.

This paper describes the development and preliminary studies of a test of the ability to decode affect in others. Items are videotaped sequences showing spontaneous unposed facial expressions and gestures of college student "senders" to emotionally-loaded color slides. Subjects make judgments about what kind of slide elicited the affect and how pleasant or unpleasant the sender's subjective response was. Satisfactory test-retest reliability was demonstrated for the former kind ofjudgment but not the latter. There was evidence that females are slightly better receivers than males, and business and fine arts majors are relatively good receivers while science majors are relatively poor.

Does the presence of others facilitate or inhibit emotional expression? Female "senders" (n = 45) viewed 12 emotionally loaded slides either alone or with another sender while responses were secretly videotaped. In Study 1, 14 "receivers" guessed the type of slide viewed by dyads more accurately ( 77 = .366). In Study 2,42 receivers viewed 10 senders with friends, 10 with strangers, and 10 alone. One dyad member was covered so that only 1 sender was visible. Analysis revealed significant effects of condition (alone, friend, or stranger; ri = .456), slide type (sexual, scenic, unpleasant, or unusual; rj = .325), and the Condition X Slide Type interaction (1; = .350). Strangers had overall inhibitory effects on communication accuracy, whereas friends had facilitative effects on some slides and inhibitory effects on others. Thus, both social facilitation and inhibition of expression occurred on the basis of the emotional stimulus and personal relationship involved.

Fridlund (Fridlund, A.J. (1991). Biological Psychology, 32, 3-100) has argued that facial displays are specific to intent and context, rather than being readouts of underlying motivational-emotional states. This paper responds that these views are not incompatible,
and that subjective emotional experience functions in part to enhance the learned control of emotional expression and communication. It summarizes the readout position, answers
Fridlund’s criticisms identifying it with the different notion of “spillover,” and contends that the expressive readout functions in spontaneous communication. Fridlund’s assertions that the readout is a reflex-like process, and that the readout view has ignored the receiver’s coevolutionary role in communication, are addressed. Evidence supporting the readout view is presented, including studies suggesting that there are hierarchically organized neurochemical systems underlying subjective, expressive, and peripheral physiological responses. Such primary motivational-emotional systems (primes) are basic to the readout theory.

The neurospychological bases of communication are reviewed, with emphasis upon spontaneous communication as forming an emotional basis for the communication process as a whole, including the linguistic communication process. Evidence presented for emotional preattunements, involving innate knowledge of the 'meaning' of the display. The neurological bases for displays are discussed in terms of the Jurgens-Ploog hierarchical model, which is compatible with the Amdt and Janney (1991) distinction of emotional, emotive, and cognitive communication. Cerebral lateralization is discussed -the lateralization both of the temporal limbic system and of the neocortex -with implications for the relationship of language and emotion. 0378-2166/94/$07.0001994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved SSDI 0378-2166(93)E0090-M 266 R. Buck I Journal of Pragmatics 22 (1994) 265-278

Simple creatures are controlled by the genes, more complex creatures are cajoled by the genes (to cajole: to persuade with artful flattery or false promises; to coax, to wheedle). The means by which the genes exert their persuasive influence involve primary motivational-emotional systems (primes). Primes are based on genetically structured neurochemical systems . Neurochemical systems involve neurotransmitters, with their agonists and antagonists, and neural structures, including neural networks and synapses (transmittal and receptor systems for neurochemicals). Primes in this view constitute "voices of the genes," the means by which genetic influences are actualized or "read out" when activated by effective stimuli.'

Simultaneous measures of physiological arousal and affiliativc behavior were taken while subjects waited for a threatening event. One hundred and twenty males were randomly distributed over a 2X2X3 design. Firstborn or later born subjects were threatened with shock (Tear) or with sucking on infantile oral objects (embarrassment). They waited either alone, with a supportive person, or with a neutral person. The major findings were: (a) embarrassment subjects were less affiliativc and more aroused with the other than were fear subjects, (6) firstborns engaged in more affiliative behavior, particularly with the supportive person, but were not more calmed by the other than later borns, and (c) subjects with the supportive other were more affiliative and more aroused than subjects with the neutral other.

ABSTRACT: Men and women were videotaped while they silently viewed emotionally toned slides (view period) and then described their feelings (talk period). They then rated their feelings on scales of pleasantness, strength, and 10 specific emotions. Videotapes of the two sending periods separately were shown to receivers who tried to identify the type of slide that the sender was viewing or describing (categorization measure) and rated the senders' expressions on the same scales (emotion correlation measure). Results indicated that communication accuracy,
and gender differences in sending, varied with sending period, type of slide, communication measure, and specific emotion. On the categorization measure, women were generally better senders. On the emotion correlation measures, women were better senders of pleasantness, disgust, distress, fear, and anger while men were slightly better senders of guilt. Accuracy was generally better in the view period than in the talk period, and the view period produced more pronounced gender differences. It is argued that categorization and correlation measures are sensitive to different aspects of emotion communication. Used in conjunction with modifications of the slide viewing paradigm, the two types of measure provide versatile means of investigating social aspects of emotional expression.

Verbal and nonverbal communication are seen in terms of interacting streams of spontaneous and symbolic communication, and posed "pseudo-spontaneous" displays. Spontaneous communication is defined as the nonintentional communication of motivational-emotional states based upon biologically shared nonpropositional signal systems, with information transmitted via displays. Symbolic communication is the intentional communication, using learned, socially shared signal systems, of propositional information transmitted via symbols. Pseudospontaneous communication involves the intentional and strategic manipulation of displays. An original meta-analysis demonstrates that, like verbal symbolic communication, nonverbal analogic (pantomimic) communication is related to left hemisphere cerebral processing. In contrast, spontaneous communication is related to the right hemisphere.

Whereas practitioners in advertising and marketing clearly appreciate the importance of affect and emotion, traditional academic approaches to the analysis of persuasion tend to stress rational ''central route'' or ''systematic'' processing. However, the notion of two sorts of cognitive process-one rational, the other affective-has gained increasing support. This paper presents a view of the conceptualization and operationalization of the interaction of affect and reason based upon MacLeans's triune theory of the brain, distinguishing reptilian, individualist and prosocial biological emotions, as well as ''higher level'' social, cognitive and moral emotions. The interactive role of affect and reason in involvement is described by the affect -reason -involvement (ARI) model, and emotions are operationalized by versions of the Communication via Analytic and Syncretic Cognition Scale (CASC Scale) tuned to the requirements of a given area of investigation. Examples of studies analyzing emotional factors in response to common consumer products and condom use/nonuse are presented. D

This study used a technique for assessing the relative impact of facial-gestural expressions, as opposed to contextual information regarding the elicitor and situation, on the judgment of emotion. In Study 1, 28 undergraduates rated videotapes of spontaneous facial-gestural expressions and separately rated the emotionally loaded color slides that elicited those expressions. The source clarities of the expressions and slides were matched using correlation and distance measures, and 18 expressions and 9 slides were selected. In Study 2, 72 undergraduate receivers were shown systematic pairings of these expressions and slides and rated the emotional state of the expresser, who was supposedly watching that slide under public or private situational conditions. Expressions were found to be more important sources for all emotion judgments. For female receivers slides were relatively more important in the public than in the private situation. sity of Connecticut. Wallbott, H. G. (1988). In and out of context: Influences of facial expression and context information on emotion attributions.

ABSTRACT: Previous research has found that high emotional expressivity contributes to interpersonal attraction independently of and on par with the contributions of physical attractiveness. Using an evolutionary perspective, we argue that emotional
expressivity can act as a marker for cooperative behavior or trustworthiness. Theoretical and empirical work from social dilemma research pointing to the advantages of having a signal for cooperation is considered, as well as research from the limited number of studies that have looked at expressive behavior within a social exchange context. We also argue that we need to inject nonverbal emotional behavior into the social dilemma paradigm, which has downplayed or ignored its role in the communication processes associated with cooperation. Finally, we offer an outline for testing our theory and expanding the role of nonverbal emotional processes within research on cooperation and social exchange.

This paper describes the slide-viewing paradigm for measuring nonverbal sending accuracy-the spontaneous tendency to display communicative nonverbal behaviorand nonverbal receiving ability-the ability to accurately decode such behaviors when they occur in others. Sending accuracy has been measured in adults, preschool children, and brain-damaged patients, and suggestive relationships have emerged between sending accuracy and gender, personality, autonomic responding, and presumed site of brain damage. The pattern of results suggests that sending accuracy may be related to both unlearned, temperamental factors and to gender-related social learning experiences. Receiving ability has been measured in adults and preschool children, and relationships with various measures have been demonstrated.

Developed and tested hypotheses concerning the relationship of different media to psychological outcomes. It is postulated that print media are related to analytic cognition (reason) and electronic media to syncretic cognition (emotion). 240 magazine and television advertisements were analyzed both in terms of their attributes and the reactions they evoke. Media differences are found for both emotional and rational responses and the main effects of media, product category, and advertising strategy variables account substantially for the variance in analytic and syncretic cognition. The choice of media is the best predictor of emotional response among all these variables.