743 research outputs found
Raising the alarm: Individual differences in the perceptual awareness of masked facial expressions.
A theoretical concern in addressing the unconscious perception of emotion is the extent to which participants can access experiential properties of masked facial stimuli. Performance on a two alternative forced choice (2AFC) task as a measure of objective awareness was compared with a new measure developed to access experiential phenomena of the target-mask transition, the perceptual contrast-change sensitivity (PCCS) measure in a backward-masking paradigm with angry, happy and neutral facial expressions. Whilst 2AFC performance indicated that the targets were successfully masked, PCCS values were significantly higher in the happy-neutral face condition than in the angry-neutral face and the neutral-neutral face conditions (Experiment 1). Furthermore, objective measures of awareness were more readily displayed by individuals with high trait anxiety, whereas individuals with low trait anxiety showed greater access to the experiential quality of happy faces (Experiment 2). These findings provide important insights into the methodological considerations involved in the study of non-conscious processing of emotions, both with respect to individual differences in anxiety and the extent to which certain expressions can be successfully masked relative to others. Furthermore, our results may be informative to work investigating the neural correlates of conscious versus unconscious perception of emotion
Landau thermodynamic potential for BaTiO_3
In the paper, the description of the dielectric and ferroelectric properties
of BaTiO_3 single crystals using Landau thermodynamic potential is addressed.
Our results suggest that when using the sixth-power free energy expansion of
the thermodynamic potential, remarkably different values of the fourth-power
coefficient, \beta (the coefficient of P^4_i terms), are required to adequately
reproduce the nonlinear dielectric behavior of the paraelectric phase and the
electric field induced ferroelectric phase, respectively. In contrast, the
eighth-power expansion with a common set of coefficients enables a good
description for both phases at the same time. These features, together with the
data available in literature, strongly attest to the necessity of the
eighth-power terms in Landau thermodynamic potential of BaTiO_3. In addition,
the fourth-power coefficients, \beta and \xi (the coefficient of P^2_i P^2_j
terms), were evaluated from the nonlinear dielectric responses along [001],
[011], and [111] orientations in the paraelectric phase. Appreciable
temperature dependence was evidenced for both coefficients above T_C. Further
analysis on the linear dielectric response of the single domain crystal in the
tetragonal phase demonstrated that temperature dependent anharmonic
coefficients are also necessary for an adequate description of the dielectric
behavior in the ferroelectric phase. As a consequence, an eighth-power
thermodynamic potential, with some of the anharmonic coefficients being
temperature dependent, was proposed and compared with the existing potentials.
In general, the potential proposed in this work exhibits a higher quality in
reproducing the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of this prototypic
ferroelectric substance.Comment: 7 figures, 5 table
Dileptons from the nonequilibrium Quark-Gluon Plasma
According to the dynamical quasiparticle model (DQPM) -- matched to reproduce
lattice QCD results in thermodynamic limit, -- the constituents of the strongly
interacting quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) are massive and off-shell quasi-particles
(quarks and gluons) with broad spectral functions. In order to address the
electromagnetic radiation of the sQGP, we derive off-shell cross sections of
, and () reactions taking into account the effective propagators
for quarks and gluons from the DQPM. Dilepton production in In+In collisions at
158 AGeV is studied by implementing these processes into the
parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach. The microscopic PHSD
transport approach describes the full evolution of the heavy-ion collision:
from the dynamics of quasi-particles in the sQGP phase (when the local energy
density is above GeV/fm) through hadronization and to the
following hadron interactions and off-shell propagation after the
hadronization. A comparison to the data of the NA60 Collaboration shows that
the low mass dilepton spectra are well described by including a collisional
broadening of vector mesons, while the spectra in the intermediate mass range
are dominated by off-shell quark-antiquark annihilation, quark Bremsstrahlung
and gluon-Compton scattering in the nonperturbative QGP. In particular, the
observed softening of the spectra at intermediate masses (1 GeV 3 GeV) is approximately reproduced.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 26th
Winter Workshop on `Nuclear Dynamics', Ochto Rios, Jamaica, 2-9 January, 201
The role of music-induced emotions on recognition memory of filmed events
The present study investigated the effects of pairing a comedic movie trailer with emotive music on subsequent recognition memory of the events depicted in the trailer. In an independent groups design, the comedic trailer was paired with happy music (congruent condition) or sad music (incongruent condition). A no music condition served as the control condition. The results showed that participants in the incongruent condition displayed a recognition memory advantage for visual test items over participants in the congruent and control conditions. While changes in self-reported positive and negative affect did not correlate significantly with recognition memory, the perception of emotion-specific categories did. These findings help to establish an empirical basis of ironic contrast techniques and propose an affective component in the integration and representation of audiovisual action that is likely to emerge where a participant perceives or recognizes expressed emotions in music, without necessarily feeling an overall positive or negative affect
Low field hysteresis in disordered ferromagnets
We analyze low field hysteresis close to the demagnetized state in disordered
ferromagnets using the zero temperature random-field Ising model. We solve the
demagnetization process exactly in one dimension and derive the Rayleigh law of
hysteresis. The initial susceptibility a and the hysteretic coefficient b
display a peak as a function of the disorder width. This behavior is confirmed
by numerical simulations d=2,3 showing that in limit of weak disorder
demagnetization is not possible and the Rayleigh law is not defined. These
results are in agreement with experimental observations on nanocrystalline
magnetic materials.Comment: Extended version, 18 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Sweet Emotion: The Role of Odor-induced Context in the Search Advantage for Happy Facial Expressions.
The current study investigated the extent to which the concurrent presentation of pleasant and unpleasant odors could modulate the perceptual saliency of happy facial expressions in an emotional visual search task. Whilst a search advantage for happy faces was found in the no odor and unpleasant odor conditions, it was abolished under the pleasant odor condition. Furthermore, phasic properties of visual search performance revealed the malleable nature of this happiness advantage. Specifically, attention towards happy faces was optimized at the start of the visual search task for participants presented with pleasant odors, but diminished towards the end. This pattern was reversed for participants in the unpleasant odor condition. These patterns occur through the emotion-inducing capacities of odors and highlight the circumstances in which top-down factors can override perceptually salient facial features in emotional visual search
Theory and Phenomenology of Vector Mesons in Medium
Electromagnetic probes promise to be direct messengers of (spectral
properties of) hot and dense matter formed in heavy-ion collisions, even at
soft momentum transfers essential for characterizing possible phase
transitions. We examine how far we have progressed toward this goal by
highlighting recent developments, and trying to establish connections between
lattice QCD, effective hadronic models and phenomenology of dilepton
production.Comment: 8 pages latex incl. 12 ps/eps files; invited plenary talk at Quark
Matter 2006 conference, Shanghai (China), Nov. 14-20, 200
Anharmonicity of BaTiO_3 single crystals
By analyzing the dielectric non-linearity with the Landau thermodynamic
expansion, we find a simple and direct way to assess the importance of the
eighth order term. Following this approach, it is demonstrated that the eighth
order term is essential for the adequate description of the para/ferroelectric
phase transition of BaTiO_3. The temperature dependence of the quartic
coefficient \beta is accordingly reconsidered and is strongly evidenced by the
change of its sign above 165 C. All these findings attest to the strong
polarization anharmonicity of this material, which is unexpected for classical
displacive ferroelectrics.Comment: 4 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Zeolite-based photocatalysts immobilized on aluminum support by plasma electrolytic oxidation
The preparation and properties of zeolite-containing oxide coatings obtained
by plasma electrolytic oxidation are investigated and discussed. Pure and
Ce-exchanged natural (clinoptilolite) and synthetic (13X) zeolites are
immobilized on aluminum support from silicate-based electrolyte. Obtained
coatings are characterized with respect to their morphology, phase and chemical
composition, photocatalytic activity and anti-corrosion properties. It is
observed that all mentioned properties of obtained coatings are dependent on
processing time and type of immobilized zeolite. Coatings with Ce-exchanged
zeolite show higher photocatalytic activity and more effective corrosion
protection than those with pure zeolite. The highest photocatalytic activity is
observed for coatings processed in pulsed a DC regime for 30 minutes containing
Ce-exchanged 13X zeolite, followed by those containing Ce-exchanged
clinoptilolite. Pronounced anti-corrosion properties feature almost all samples
containing Ce-exchanged 13X zeolite
Two languages, two minds: flexible cognitive processing driven by language of operation.
People make sense of objects and events around them by classifying them into identifiable categories. The extent to which language affects this process has been the focus of a long-standing debate: Do different languages cause their speakers to behave differently? Here, we show that fluent German-English bilinguals categorize motion events according to the grammatical constraints of the language in which they operate. First, as predicted from cross-linguistic differences in motion encoding, bilingual participants functioning in a German testing context prefer to match events on the basis of motion completion to a greater extent than do bilingual participants in an English context. Second, when bilingual participants experience verbal interference in English, their categorization behavior is congruent with that predicted for German; when bilingual participants experience verbal interference in German, their categorization becomes congruent with that predicted for English. These findings show that language effects on cognition are context-bound and transient, revealing unprecedented levels of malleability in human cognition
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