What's in a face: Automatic facial coding of untraines study participants compared to standardized inventories

Automatic facial coding (AFC) is a novel research tool to automatically analyze emotional facial expressions. AFC can classify emotional expressions with high accuracy in standardized picture inventories of intensively posed and prototypical expressions. However, classification of facial expressions of untrained study participants is more error prone. This discrepancy requires a direct comparison between these two sources of facial expressions. To this end, 70 untrained participants were asked to express joy, anger, surprise, sadness, disgust, and fear in a typical laboratory setting. Recorded videos were scored with a well-established AFC software (FaceReader, Noldus Information Technology). These were compared with AFC measures of standardized pictures from 70 trained actors (i.e., standardized inventories). We report the probability estimates of specific emotion categories and, in addition, Action Unit (AU) profiles for each emotion. Based on this, we used a novel machine learning approach to determine the relevant AUs for each emotion, separately for both datasets. First, misclassification was more frequent for some emotions of untrained participants. Second, AU intensities were generally lower in pictures of untrained participants compared to standardized pictures for all emotions. Third, although profiles of relevant AU overlapped substantially across the two data sets, there were also substantial differences in their AU profiles. This research provides evidence that the application of AFC is not limited to standardized facial expression inventories but can also be used to code facial expressions of untrained participants in a typical laboratory setting

Prefrontal asymmetry and depression in adolescents

Das Modell Anteriorer Asymmetrie und Emotion von Richard Davidson geht von der Existenz zweier frontokortikaler Emotionssysteme aus: Ein linksfrontal lokalisiertes System, das mit Annäherungsverhalten und positivem Affekt in Verbindung gebracht wird, sowie ein orthogonales System in der rechten Hemisphäre, das Rückzugsverhalten und negativen Affekt auslöst. Eine Hypoaktivität des linksfrontalen Kortex betrachtet Davidson als Diathese für die Entwicklung depressiver Störungen. Eine Vielzahl von korrelativen Studien mit Erwachsenen, die typischerweise depressive und nicht depressive Probanden hinsichtlich ihrer frontalen Aktivierung vergleichen, stützt Davidsons Modell, wohingegen entsprechende Befunde bei Jugendlichen sowie der Nachweis einer prädiktiven Wirkung der frontalen Aktivierungsasymmetrie für eine künftige depressive Symptomatik weitgehend fehlen. Auf diese beiden Aspekte konzentriert sich die vorliegende Arbeit. In einer prospektiven Längsschnittstudie wurden 83 subklinisch depressive und gesunde Jugendliche elektrophysiologisch zu drei Messzeitpunkten innerhalb eines Intervalls von zwölf Monaten untersucht. Die kortikale Aktivierung wurde über absolute Alphapower- und Asymmetriewerte erfasst. Da Davidson die frontale Aktivierungsasymmetrie als altersunabhängigen Vulnerabilitätsfaktor betrachtet, sollte sie ebenso wie bei Erwachsenen auch bei Jugendlichen hohe zeitliche Stabilität aufweisen. Des Weiteren wurde angenommen, dass depressive Jugendliche eine relative linksfrontale Hypoaktivität im Vergleich zu nicht depressiven Probanden zeigen. Längsschnittlich sollte sich aus der frontalen Aktivierungsasymmetrie beim ersten Messzeitpunkt die depressive Symptomatik nach zwölf Monaten vorhersagen lassen. Zudem wurde untersucht, ob die Tendenz zu ruminativem Denken die Beziehung zwischen frontaler Aktivierungsasymmetrie und Depressivität mediiert. Insbesondere für Alphapowerwerte konnte eine hohe interne Konsistenz der Messwerte sowie hohe Retestreliabilität nachgewiesen werden. Depressive zeigten relative linksfrontale und -parietale Hypoaktivität verglichen mit Nicht-Depressiven bei zwei von drei Messzeitpunkten. Für eine der beiden verwendeten EEG-Referenzierungen ergab sich bei medial-frontalen und parietalen Kortexregionen eine signifikante Vorhersage der späteren depressiven Symptomatik. Lediglich lateral-frontal fand sich keine entsprechende Beziehung. Zwar trat bei Depressiven verstärkt Rumination auf, allerdings wirkte die Variable nicht als Mediator der Beziehung zwischen EEG und späterer Depressivität. Für künftige Studien wird empfohlen, die Beziehungen zwischen kortikaler Aktivierung und Depression im Kontext komplexer Diathese-Stress-Modelle zu betrachten.The Model of Anterior Asymmetry and Emotion by Richard Davidson proposes two frontocortical systems of emotion: A left frontal approach system is thought to facilitate appetitive behaviour and to generate positive affect. An orthogonal system in the right hemisphere motivates withdrawal behaviour and contributes to negative affect. Hypoactivity of the left anterior cortical area is supposed to be a trait marker for increased risk for depressive disorders. Whereas a growing number of correlational studies with adult samples comparing depressed and nondepressed subjects with respect to brain activity support Davidson's hypotheses, little is known about adolescent samples and the predictive value of frontal asymmetry for future depressive symptoms. These two aspects were addressed in this study. In a prospective longitudinal study 83 subclinically depressed and healthy adolescents were electrophysiologically assessed at three measurement occasions within an interval of twelve months. The cortical asymmetry was measured via absolute alpha power and asymmetry scores. As Davidson considers frontal asymmetry as an age-independent trait marker, frontal brain activity should be stable over time in adolescents as well as in adult samples. Furthermore, it was hypothesised that depressed adolescents would exhibit relative left-frontal hypoactivity compared to nondepressed subjects. From a longitudinal point of view, frontal asymmetry at baseline should account for depressive symptoms after twelve months. Finally, it was examined whether the subjects' tendency to ruminative thinking would mediate the relationship between frontal cortical asymmetry and depression. Especially for alpha power scores high internal consistency and retest-reliability could be found. Depressed subjects showed relative left-frontal and -parietal hypoactivity compared to nondepressed adolescents at two of the three measure times. For one of the two involved EEG references, medial-frontal and parietal activity at first assessment allowed a significant prediction of later depressive symptoms. Only the lateral-frontal positions failed significance. Ruminative thinking was more prominent among depressed subjects, but did not mediate the relationship between cortical asymmetry and depression. For further research it was recommended to examine the relationship between brain activity and depression in the context of more complex vulnerability stress models

KI schlägt Mensch?!

Die wachsende Bedeutung des eCommerce macht automatisierte Anwendungen im Shop-Management immer relevanter. Sehr hohes Potenzial wird der automatisierten Texterstellung in Online-Shops zugeschrieben. Der Beitrag stellt wichtige Merkmale der Produktbeschreibungen zusammen und vergleicht in einer empirischen Analyse automatisch und menschlich erstellte Produkttexte. Das Untersuchungsdesign berücksichtigt ein breites Spektrum an Erfolgskriterien für Produktbeschreibungen

Green or social? An analysis of environmental and social sustainability advertising and its impact on brand personality, credibility and attitude

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of sustainability advertising on brand personality, credibility, attitude toward the ad and brand attitude; special attention was given to whether or not environmental and social sustainability advertising have different effects. The results of an online survey revealed that environmental sustainability advertising has a stronger influence than social sustainability advertising. Thus, the findings suggest that a focus on environmental aspects delivers the more impactful advertising content when promoting a brand's sustainability. This result is consistent with the existing studies on the sub-dimensions of sustainability; although only researched in different contexts, earlier findings also showed that environmental sustainability has a higher impact. Furthermore, an explicit integration of environmental aspects into the measurement of brand personalities offers a new and interesting field of future research. The study is based on data collected from 166 respondents. The impact of sustainability advertising is investigated by an experimental manipulation of the advertising condition. To test the hypotheses, structural equation models are applied, as well as one-way analyses of variance