Maital Neta - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Maital Neta

Journal of Research in Personality

PLOS ONE, 2019

Background Extensive research has established a clear positive relationship between physical acti... more Background Extensive research has established a clear positive relationship between physical activity (PA), even in small amounts, and psychological well-being, including benefits for emotional and mental health (e.g., decreased depression). However, little research has examined the relationship between PA and decision-making within emotionally ambiguous contexts. The purpose of the present cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between reported amount and intensity of PA and interpretations of emotional ambiguity. Methods Adults (n = 611) recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk were assessed on their interpretations of ambiguous and clear (unambiguous) emotional stimuli and reported habitual PA and exercise. Results More positive ratings of ambiguity were associated with greater amount of vigorous activity (p = .002), but not with moderate activity (p = .826) or walking (p = .673). Subsequent analyses demonstrated that this relationship between vigorous PA and positive interpretations of ambiguity was most pronounced when comparing individuals who reported any amount of vigorous PA to those who reported no vigorous activity at all. Conclusions Our findings suggest that higher amounts of vigorous, but not moderate, PA are associated with more positive interpretations of ambiguity, and that even small amounts of PA seem to be sufficient to promote this more positive valence bias when compared to individuals conducting no vigorous PA at all. Future work should examine the longitudinal effects of PA among individuals participating in structured activity programs.

Perspectives on Psychological Science

We write in response to an article published in this journal by Andrew Ortony titled “Are All ‘Ba... more We write in response to an article published in this journal by Andrew Ortony titled “Are All ‘Basic Emotions’ Emotions? A Problem for the (Basic) Emotions Construct.” The author claimed that “for all its elevated status as a basic emotion, surprise fails to satisfy the minimal requirements that [he] proposed for something to be an emotion, and if it is not an emotion, it cannot possibly be a basic emotion.” Although we acknowledge the concerns brought forth by Ortony, we respectfully disagree with his conclusion about surprise. To make a case against the assertion that surprise is valence-free, we summarize an extensive body of work showing that surprise is indeed valenced—in a specific manner (i.e., ambiguously valenced)—and that it meets all of Ortony’s criteria for an emotion. In other words, rather than being described as neither positive nor negative, this emotion is either positive or negative. We consider the data with respect to surprise as a basic emotion, and we dispute t...

Personality and Individual Differences

rudimentary information to make predictive judgments

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations a... more Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. These studies provide evidence of cognitive underpinnings of the structure and organization of semantic representation in both healthy and clinical populations. In this registered report, we propose to create a large database of semantic priming values, alleviating the sample size and limited language issues with previous studies in this area. Consequently, this database will include semantic priming data across multiple languages using an adaptive sampling procedure. This study will test the size of semantic priming effect and its variability across languages. Results will support semantic priming when reduced response latencies are found for related word-pair conditions in comparison to unrelated word-pair conditions. Differences in semantic priming across languages will be supported when priming effect confidence intervals do not overlap.

Despite benefits for reducing disease spread, masks obscure facial expressions, impairing nonverb... more Despite benefits for reducing disease spread, masks obscure facial expressions, impairing nonverbal communication of emotion. We assessed the impact of lower (masks) and upper (sunglasses) facial coverings on valence judgments of clearly valenced (fearful, happy) and ambiguously valenced (surprised) facial expressions, the latter of which have valid positive and negative meaning. Results from an online sample (n = 146) showed that masks, but not sunglasses, impaired judgments of clearly valenced expressions compared to expressions without coverings (ps < .001). Sunglasses, but not masks, affected judgments of the ambiguous surprised expressions (p = .08). Drift diffusion models revealed that face coverings impacted the judgment process in an expression-specific manner: Masks increased the amount of evidence required to reach a judgment boundary for both fearful and surprised faces (ps < .001) by eliminating starting point bias, whereas masks slowed evidence accumulation for ha...

What are the basic visual cues that determine our preference towards mundane everyday objects? We... more What are the basic visual cues that determine our preference towards mundane everyday objects? We previously showed that a highly potent cue is the nature of the object’s contour: people generally like objects with a curved contour compared with objects that have pointed features and a sharp-angled contour. This bias is hypothesized here to stem from an implicit perception of potential threat conveyed by sharp elements. Using human neuroimaging to test this hypothesis, we report that the amygdala, a brain structure that is involved in fear processing and has been shown to exhibit activation level that is proportional to arousal in general, is significantly more active for everyday sharp objects (e.g., a sofa with sharp corners) compared with their curved contour counterparts. Therefore, our results indicate that a preference bias towards a visual object can be induced by low-level perceptual properties, independent of semantic meaning, via visual elements that on some level could be...

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

During cognitive reappraisal, an individual reinterprets the meaning of an emotional stimulus to ... more During cognitive reappraisal, an individual reinterprets the meaning of an emotional stimulus to regulate the intensity of their emotional response. Prefrontal cortex activity has been found to support reappraisal and is putatively thought to downregulate the amygdala response to these stimuli. The timing of these regulation-related responses during the course of a trial, however, remains poorly understood. In the current fMRI study, participants were instructed to view or reappraise negative images and then rate how negative they felt following each image. The hemodynamic response function was estimated in 11 regions of interest for the entire time course of the trial including image viewing and rating. Notably, within the amygdala there was no evidence of downregulation in the early (picture viewing) window of the trial, only in the late (rating) window, which also correlated with a behavioral measure of reappraisal success. With respect to the prefrontal regions, some (e.g., infe...

Cognition and Emotion

ABSTRACT Everyday social interactions hinge on our ability to resolve uncertainty in nonverbal cu... more ABSTRACT Everyday social interactions hinge on our ability to resolve uncertainty in nonverbal cues. For example, although some facial expressions (e.g. happy, angry) convey a clear affective meaning, others (e.g. surprise) are ambiguous, in that their meaning is determined by the context. Here, we used mouse-tracking to examine the underlying process of resolving uncertainty. Previous work has suggested an initial negativity, in part via faster response times for negative than positive ratings of surprise. We examined valence categorizations of filtered images in order to compare faster (low spatial frequencies; LSF) versus more deliberate processing (high spatial frequencies; HSF). When participants categorised faces as “positive”, they first exhibited a partial attraction toward the competing (“negative”) response option, and this effect was exacerbated for HSF than LSF faces. Thus, the effect of response conflict due to an initial negativity bias was exaggerated for HSF faces, likely because these images allow for greater deliberation than the LSFs. These results are consistent with the notion that more positive categorizations are characterised by an initial attraction to a default, negative response.

Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 2019

Emotion, like motivation, is derived from the Latin word movere (to move) and is one of the prima... more Emotion, like motivation, is derived from the Latin word movere (to move) and is one of the primary forces that activates or energizes our behaviors. Both emotion and motivation have important influences on many social and cognitive processes and can shape the way we navigate our social world. Emotion also has important implications for political behavior, as recent research has shown that emotion can contribute to political polarization, attraction to “fake news,” and the spread of misinformation. The field of affective science examines the nature of our emotional experience, expression, and the mechanisms with which we regulate these processes. Taken together, this field has important implications for our day-to-day lives, and for society more broadly. In this volume, we will provide a brief sampling of some of the areas of research that have been dedicated to elucidating the role of emotion and motivation in shaping human behavior.

People constantly make snap judgments about objects encountered in the environment. Such rapid ju... more People constantly make snap judgments about objects encountered in the environment. Such rapid judg- ments must be based on the physical properties of the targets, but the nature of these properties is yet unknown. We hypothesized that sharp transitions in contour might convey a sense of threat, and therefore trigger a negative bias. Our results were consistent with this hypothesis. The type of contour a visual object possesses—whether the contour is sharp angled or curved—has a critical influence on people's attitude toward that object. What are the physical elements in a visual stimulus that make one like it, dislike it, or respond fearfully to it? Liking of visual objects has been shown to be affected by factors such as sym- metry, prototypicality, contrast, complexity, and perceptual fluency (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004). However, given howquicklysuchimpressionscanbeformed(Ambady,Bernieri, RBar,Neta,&Linz,inpress),theymustrelyon visual primitivesthatcanbe extractedfro...

<p>Stress exposure is associated with an increased tendency to appraise ambiguous social st... more <p>Stress exposure is associated with an increased tendency to appraise ambiguous social stimuli as negative. However, it remains unknown whether tendencies to use emotion regulation strategies—such as cognitive reappraisal, which involves altering the meaning of affective stimuli—can buffer these stress effects on social evaluations. Here, we examined whether increased reappraisal use confers resilience against stress-induced negativity bias. In Study 1, healthy participants (n=43) rated the valence of emotionally ambiguous (surprised) faces before and after an acute stress or control manipulation and reported reappraisal habits. Increased negativity ratings were milder for stressed individuals that reported more habitual reappraisal use. In Study 2 (n=97), we extended this investigation to real-world perceived stress before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that reappraisal tendency moderates the relationship between perceived stress and increased negativity bias. Collectively, these findings suggest that the propensity to reappraise attenuates stress-induced negativity bias when evaluating others under uncertainty.</p>

Scientific Reports

Negativity bias is not only central to mood and anxiety disorders, but can powerfully impact our ... more Negativity bias is not only central to mood and anxiety disorders, but can powerfully impact our decision-making across domains (e.g., financial, medical, social). This project builds on previous work examining negativity bias using dual-valence ambiguity. Specifically, although some facial expressions have a relatively clear negative (angry) or positive valence (happy), surprised expressions are interpreted negatively by some and positively by others, providing insight into one’s valence bias. Here, we examine putative sources of variability that distinguish individuals with a more negative versus positive valence bias using structural equation modeling. Our model reveals that one’s propensity toward negativity (operationalized as temperamental negative affect and internalizing symptomology) predicts valence bias particularly in older adulthood when a more positive bias is generally expected. Further, variability in social connectedness (a propensity to seek out social connections,...

Participants are successful in regulating their emotions (less negative ratings during reappraise... more Participants are successful in regulating their emotions (less negative ratings during reappraise than maintain). Methods, Continued As hypothesized, the participants rated these ambiguous surprised faces less negative after they practiced regulating their emotions. This is an indication that these emotion regulating exercises may be beneficial to those who might have a more negative bias, and those who have difficulties regulating their emotions (anxiety, depression). These exercises could help provide individuals with the tools to develop a healthier and more positive outlook on life.

Reducing negative impacts of stress, for example through mindfulness training, benefits physical ... more Reducing negative impacts of stress, for example through mindfulness training, benefits physical and psychological well-being, and is becoming ever more crucial due to large-scale societal uncertainties (e.g., COVID-19). While extensive research has focused on mindfulness-related reductions in self-reported negativity, essentially no research has targeted task-based behavioral outcomes throughout long-term mindfulness trainings. Responses to emotionally ambiguous signals (e.g., surprised expressions), which might be appraised as either positive or negative, provide a nuanced assessment of one’s emotional bias across diverse contexts, offering unique leverage for assessing the effects of mindfulness. Here, we compared the effects of short- and long-term training via Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on ratings of faces with a relatively clear (angry, happy) and ambiguous (surprised) valence. Ratings became more positive for ambiguity from the start (Week 1) to end of training (Week ...