JUDGING WORDS AT FACE VALUE - INTERFERENCE IN A WORD-PROCESSING TASK REVEALS AUTOMATIC PROCESSING OF AFFECTIVE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Earlier research has indicated that some characteristics. of facial ex pressions may be automatically processed. This study investigated auto maticity as evidenced by involuntary interference in a word evaluation task. Compound stimuli, consisting of words superimposed on pictures of affective faces, were presented to subjects who were given the task of evaluating the affective valence of the words while disregarding t he faces. Results of three experiments showed that word evaluation was influenced by the concurrently shown affective faces. Overall, negati ve words were found to require longer latencies, indicating that more processing resources are invested in negative than in positive stimuli . This speed advantage for positive words was modified by the faces. N egative words were facilitated, relative to positive ones, when shown with a negative expression (e.g. a sad face). Correspondingly, negativ e words were inhibited, relative to positive ones, when shown with a p ositive expression (e.g. a happy face). The results are consistent wit h automatic, involuntary semantic processing of affective facial expre ssions.