Haunting Images: Differential Perception and Emotional Response to the Archetypes of News Photography: A Study of Visual Reception Factored by Gender and Expertise

This dissertation explores how and why certain news photographs become memorable. Although researchers believe news photos count as forms of media expression, no one knows how influential these images really are in shaping societal attitudes. Social constructionist critics have argued that iconic images are pervasive markers of American collective memory. While icons have become the subject of intense media study, critics have ignored the presence of image archetypes that fall outside of the boundaries of the American iconic canon. They have also followed a top-down procedure of interpretation rather than a bottom-up method of collecting data from actual subjects. As I define it, the news image archetype is an authentically captured image of a human predicament of the greatest magnitude and seriousness showing conflict, tragedy, and occasionally, triumph. Visually these images communicate through physical gestures and facial expressions either directly, when faces are visible, or by implication in panoramic shots. Archetypal images can be iconic but need not be. Whereas icons are presumed to appeal to "everybody" by modeling ideology and "civic performance," archetypes need not exhibit any particular ideology. The common thread is more universally human than political. For this reason their appeal tends to be trans-cultural. This mixed-method study tests audience response to 41 outstanding news photographs including iconic, archetypal and ordinary examples. The purpose is to ascertain whether archetypal images can be distinguished and recalled as outstanding exemplars outside the iconic category; whether image quality preferences vary by visual expertise and gender; and how study subjects "read" the archetype. Using 2X2 ANOVA design, I studied four independent groups: male/female, visual expert/visual non-expert; n = 113. Study data indicate a convergence of ranking preference for some non-iconic archetypes that were rated as highly as famous icons. However, the strongest results show a convergence as to which image qualities (e.g., aesthetics, newsworthiness, emotional arousal etc.) were most important to viewers. The study found statistically significant differences of judgment on image qualities factored by gender and expertise. Qualitative results provided rich insights on factors affecting viewer response while composite data suggest multiple lines of future research

Incongruity, incongruity resolution, and mental states: The measure and modification of situational awareness and control

The research reported here describes the process of induction of various mental states. Our goals were to measure and to manipulate both the behavioral and the neurological correlates of particular mental states that have previously been demonstrated to be either beneficial or deleterious to in-flight performance situations. The experimental paradigm involved developing a context of which the participants were aware, followed by the introduction of an incongruity into that context. The empirical questions involved how the incongruity was resolved and the consequent effects on mental state. The dependent variables were measures of both the short-term ERP changes and the longer-term brain mapping indications of predominant mental states. The mission of NASA Flight Management Division and Human/Automation Integration Branch centers on the understanding and improvement of interaction between a complex system and a human operator. Specifically, the goal is improved efficiency through better operative procedures and control strategies. More efficient performance in demanding flight environments depends on improved situational awareness and replanning for fault management

Machine Vision: How Algorithms are Changing the Way We See the World

Humans have used technology to expand our limited vision for millennia, from the invention of the stone mirror 8,000 years ago to the latest developments in facial recognition and augmented reality. We imagine that technologies will allow us to see more, to see differently and even to see everything. But each of these new ways of seeing carries its own blind spots. In this illuminating book, Jill Walker Rettberg examines the long history of machine vision. Providing an overview of the historical and contemporary uses of machine vision, she unpacks how technologies such as smart surveillance cameras and TikTok filters are changing the way we see the world and one another. By analysing fictional and real-world examples, including art, video games and science fiction, the book shows how machine vision can have very different cultural impacts, fostering both sympathy and community as well as anxiety and fear. Combining ethnographic and critical media studies approaches alongside personal reflections, Machine Vision is an engaging and eye-opening read. It is suitable for students and scholars of digital media studies, science and technology studies, visual studies, digital art and science fiction, as well as for general readers interested in the impact of new technologies on society.publishedVersio

On the Recognition of Emotion from Physiological Data

This work encompasses several objectives, but is primarily concerned with an experiment where 33 participants were shown 32 slides in order to create ‗weakly induced emotions‘. Recordings of the participants‘ physiological state were taken as well as a self report of their emotional state. We then used an assortment of classifiers to predict emotional state from the recorded physiological signals, a process known as Physiological Pattern Recognition (PPR). We investigated techniques for recording, processing and extracting features from six different physiological signals: Electrocardiogram (ECG), Blood Volume Pulse (BVP), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), Electromyography (EMG), for the corrugator muscle, skin temperature for the finger and respiratory rate. Improvements to the state of PPR emotion detection were made by allowing for 9 different weakly induced emotional states to be detected at nearly 65% accuracy. This is an improvement in the number of states readily detectable. The work presents many investigations into numerical feature extraction from physiological signals and has a chapter dedicated to collating and trialing facial electromyography techniques. There is also a hardware device we created to collect participant self reported emotional states which showed several improvements to experimental procedure

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

A Narrative Study of Emotions Associated with Negative Childhood Experiences Reported in the Adult Attachment Interview

Attachment patterns, which tend to be stable over time, are passed from one generation to the next. Secure attachment has been linked to adaptive social functioning and has been identified as a protective factor against mental illness. The parents’ state of mind with regard to attachment—as measured with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) (Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2002)—predicts the attachment classification for the infant in Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). Earned-secure individuals have overcome negative childhood experiences to achieve a secure state of mind in adulthood. Earned security, like continuous security, strongly predicts infant security in the next generation. Preoccupied anger is one of the main constructs measured in the AAI that may lead to classification of an insecure, preoccupied state of mind. The current study was an analysis of the narratives of eight individuals whose AAIs indicated mild to high scores for preoccupied anger. All of these individuals have spent considerable energy and resources in grappling with negative childhood experiences. Participants were interviewed regarding how their feelings changed over time and what, if any, events contributed to how their feelings changed. For most participants, the emergence of sustained subjective anger was reported in late adolescence, or even adulthood. Those whose transcripts were judged earned-secure at the time of the study were associated with narratives that indicated progressive gains in Hoffman’s (2008) stages of empathy and Perry’s (1968) scheme for intellectual and ethical development. Reappraisal was identified as a key emotional regulation strategy that contributed to security. Supports for executive function also featured as important factors in the attainment of therapeutic goals. Attachment researchers may be especially interested that Hoffman’s stages emerged as a possible link between metacognitive processes for earned- and continuous-secure individuals alike. In contrast, the study’s findings regarding integrative processes associated with post-formal cognitive development, and mediators for implicit learning as predictors of behavior, suggest that earned security may be a different construct from continuous security. The results of this study hold important implications for treatment and social policy. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/e

Columbia Chronicle (04/28/2014)

Student newspaper from April 28, 2014 entitled The Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 44 pages and is listed as Volume 49, Number 28. Cover story: Biggest Mouth, bigger voices Editor-in-Chief: Lindsey Woodshttps://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cadc_chronicle/1908/thumbnail.jp

Being and beholding: Comparative analysis of joy and awe in four cultures

The emotions of joy and awe have received some attention in the psychological literature with few studies comparing the two phenomena across cultures. A phenomenological study of joy and awe in four countries – Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and the USA, examined both emotions. The inquiry was conducted through semi-structured interviews. The phenomenological methodology was supplemented with grounded theory procedures to ensure research rigor. Four categories were identified that contribute to the experience of joy and awe: unity of souls, nature, spirituality, and the original self. Freedom, humor, face-to-face communication, innocence, time, and space were facets of the joy and awe experience. Categories hindering joy and awe were: family troubles, illness, political systems, globalization and consumerism, and the electronic childhood. Childhood innocence and posttraumatic growth were personal variables enhancing joy and awe. Culturally awe was expressed: in linguistics, the supernatural, death, the original self, and education. Joy in culture was connected to the supernatural, freedom, and sorrow. This study represents the first phenomenological exploration of joy and awe to include human development, cultural values and comparison of childhood experience before and after the rise of the virtual world

A Comparative Study of the Effects of Music on Emotional State in the Normal and High-functioning Autistic Population

It has been assumed that the social deficits inherent in autism imply that individuals with the condition will be unable fully to appreciate the emotional content of music. My aim was to test this assumption, and to explore more widely the similarities and differences between the experience of music in the normal population and those with autism. My first study used musically-induced mood changes and a behavioural measure to show that music does indeed have a more than superficial effect on cognitive processes in a control group. The second study focused on high-functioning adults on the autism spectrum, using semi-structured interviews to investigate the part that music played in their everyday lives, concluding that autism is no bar to full appreciation of the emotional uses of music, though suggesting a degree of impoverishment in the language they used to describe the emotions. The final set of experiments compared control and autism group directly, using physiological (GSR) measures of arousal together with self-report of the emotions evoked by a set of musical items. Standardised questionnaires were used to measure alexithymia (difficulty in identifying and describing feelings) in individuals. Although the autism group experienced comparable levels of physiological arousal to music, they used fewer words than the control group to describe their emotional responses, a difference which correlated strongly with their level of alexithymia. My results are consistent with the hypothesis that in autism, the basic physiological and emotional component of their reactivity to music is functioning normally, but that their ability to translate these reactions into conventional emotional language is reduced, precisely in line with the extent of their alexithymia. These results suggest that the preserved ability of music to generate emotional arousal in autism may lead to clinical applications for the treatment of alexithymia in autism and other conditions

Suicide by Democracy: An Obituary for America and the World 2nd Edition

Among the millions of pages of print and web pages and incessant chat and chatter on TV and blogs and speeches, there is a notable absence of a short clear honest, accurate, sane, intelligent summary of the catastrophe that is destroying America and the world. This is partly due to a lack of understanding and partly to the suppression of free speech by the leftist/liberal/progressive/democratic/socialist/multicultural/diverse/social democratic/communist/third world supremacist coalition. I attempt to fill that gap here. An integral part of modern democracy is The One Big Happy Family Delusion, i.e., that we are selected for cooperation with everyone, and that the euphonious ideals of Democracy, Diversity and Equality will lead us into utopia, if we just manage things correctly (the possibility of politics). The No Free Lunch Principle ought to warn us it cannot be true, and we see throughout history and all over the contemporary world, that without strict controls, selfishness and stupidity gain the upper hand and soon destroy any nation that embraces these delusions. In addition, the monkey mind steeply discounts the future, and so we cooperate in selling our descendant’s heritage for temporary comforts, greatly exacerbating the problems. I describe the great tragedy playing out in America and the world, which can be seen as a direct result of our evolved psychology, which, though eminently adaptive and eugenic on the plains of Africa ca. 6 million years ago, when we split from chimpanzees, to ca. 50,000 to 150,000 years ago, when many of our ancestors left Africa (i.e., in the EEA or Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation), is now maladaptive and dysgenic and the source of our Suicidal Utopian Delusions. So, like all discussions of behavior (philosophy, psychology, sociology, biology, anthropology, politics, law, literature, history, economics, soccer strategies, business meetings, etc.), this book is ultimately about evolutionary strategies, selfish genes and inclusive fitness (kin selection, i.e., natural selection). One might take this to imply that a just, democratic and enduring society for any kind of entity on any planet in any universe is only a dream, and that no being or power could make it otherwise. It is not only ‘the laws’ of physics that are universal and inescapable, or perhaps we should say that inclusive fitness is a law of physics. The great mystic Osho said that the separation of God and Heaven from Earth and Humankind was the most evil idea that ever entered the human mind. In recent times an even more evil notion arose, that humans are born with rights, rather than having to earn privileges. The idea of human rights, as now commonly promulgated, is an evil fantasy created by leftists to draw attention away from the merciless destruction of the earth by unrestrained 3rd world motherhood. Thus, every day the population increases by 200,000, who must be provided with resources to grow and space to live, and who soon produce another 200,000 etc. And one almost never hears it noted that what they receive must be taken from those already alive, and their descendants. Their lives diminish those already here in both major obvious and countless subtle ways. Every new baby destroys the earth from the moment of conception. In a horrifically overcrowded world with vanishing resources, there cannot be human rights without destroying the earth and our descendant’s futures. It could not be more obvious, but it is rarely mentioned in a clear and direct way, and one will never see the streets full of protesters against motherhood. The most basic fact, almost never mentioned, is that there are not enough resources in America or the world to lift a significant percentage of the poor out of poverty and keep them there. The attempt to do this is bankrupting America and destroying the world. The earth’s capacity to produce food decreases daily, as does our genetic quality. And now, as always, by far the greatest enemy of the poor is other poor and not the rich. America and the world are in the process of collapse from excessive population growth, most of it for the last century, and now all of it, due to 3rd world people. Consumption of resources, and the addition of some 3 billion more ca. 2100, will collapse industrial civilization and bring about starvation, disease, violence and war on a staggering scale. The earth loses at least 1% of its topsoil every year, so as it nears 2100, most of its food growing capacity will be gone. Billions will die and nuclear war is all but certain. In America, this is being hugely accelerated by massive immigration and immigrant reproduction, combined with abuses made possible by democracy. Depraved human nature inexorably turns the dream of democracy and diversity into a nightmare of crime and poverty. China will continue to overwhelm America and the world, as long as it maintains the dictatorship which limits selfishness and enables long term planning. The root cause of collapse is the inability of our innate psychology to adapt to the modern world, which leads people to treat unrelated persons as though they had common interests (which I suggest may be regarded as an unrecognized -- but the commonest and most serious-- psychological problem -- Inclusive Fitness Disorder). This, plus ignorance of basic biology and psychology, leads to the social engineering delusions of the partially educated who control democratic societies. Few understand that if you help one person you harm someone else—there is no free lunch and every single item anyone consumes destroys the earth beyond repair. Consequently, social policies everywhere are unsustainable and one by one all societies without stringent controls on selfishness will collapse into anarchy or dictatorship. Without dramatic and immediate changes, there is no hope for preventing the collapse of America, or any country that follows a democratic system. This is happening even without climate change or the evil designs of Seven Senile Sociopaths who rule China, but they make it happen much faster. The only major change from the first edition of this essay is the addition of a brief discussion of China, which represents by far the greatest threat to peace and freedom worldwide. The policy of appeasing them, which all countries and most businesses pursue, is the worst of the suicidal utopian delusions. Those wishing to read my other writings may see Talking Monkeys 2nd ed (2019), The Logical Structure of Philosophy, Psychology, Mind and Language in Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Searle 2nd ed (2019), Suicide by Democracy 3rd ed (2019), The Logical Stucture of Human Behavior (2019) and Suicidal Utopian Delusions in the 21st Century 4th ed (2019