Showing papers on "Surprise published in 2012"

Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally universal

Abstract: Since Darwin’s seminal works, the universality of facial expressions of emotion has remained one of the longest standing debates in the biological and social sciences. Briefly stated, the universality hypothesis claims that all humans communicate six basic internal emotional states (happy, surprise, fear, disgust, anger, and sad) using the same facial movements by virtue of their biological and evolutionary origins [Susskind JM, et al. (2008) Nat Neurosci 11:843–850]. Here, we refute this assumed universality. Using a unique computer graphics platform that combines generative grammars [Chomsky N (1965) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA] with visual perception, we accessed the mind’s eye of 30 Western and Eastern culture individuals and reconstructed their mental representations of the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Cross-cultural comparisons of the mental representations challenge universality on two separate counts. First, whereas Westerners represent each of the six basic emotions with a distinct set of facial movements common to the group, Easterners do not. Second, Easterners represent emotional intensity with distinctive dynamic eye activity. By refuting the long-standing universality hypothesis, our data highlight the powerful influence of culture on shaping basic behaviors once considered biologically hardwired. Consequently, our data open a unique nature–nurture debate across broad fields from evolutionary psychology and social neuroscience to social networking via digital avatars.

Emotion-Induced Engagement in Internet Video Advertisements

Abstract: This study shows how advertisers can leverage emotion and attention to engage consumers in watching Internet video advertisements. In a controlled experiment, the authors assessed joy and surprise through automated facial expression detection for a sample of advertisements. They assessed concentration of attention through eye tracking and viewer retention by recording zapping behavior. This allows tests of predictions about the interplay of these emotions and interperson attention differences at each point in time during exposure. Surprise and joy effectively concentrate attention and retain viewers. However, importantly, the level rather than the velocity of surprise affects attention concentration most, whereas the velocity rather than the level of joy affects viewer retention most. The effect of joy is asymmetric, with higher gains for increases than losses for decreases. Using these findings, the authors develop representative emotion trajectories to support ad design and testing.

Appraisal Determinants of Tourist Emotional Responses

Abstract: A coherent body of research recognizes the role of emotion in various aspects of consumer behavior. However, while a number of studies exist on the consequences of emotion, empirical investigations into its determinants in tourism have received lesser attention. Building on well-established cognitive appraisal theories of emotion, this study investigates the antecedents of tourists’ emotional responses toward destinations. Canonical correlation analysis supports an appraisal model of emotion in the context of tourist destinations. Results indicate that appraisals of pleasantness, goal congruence, and internal self-compatibility are the main determinants of joy, love, and positive surprise. Overall, the findings offer strategic marketing implications for tourist destinations.

A model of the perception of facial expressions of emotion by humans: research overview and perspectives

Abstract: In cognitive science and neuroscience, there have been two leading models describing how humans perceive and classify facial expressions of emotion--the continuous and the categorical model. The continuous model defines each facial expression of emotion as a feature vector in a face space. This model explains, for example, how expressions of emotion can be seen at different intensities. In contrast, the categorical model consists of C classifiers, each tuned to a specific emotion category. This model explains, among other findings, why the images in a morphing sequence between a happy and a surprise face are perceived as either happy or surprise but not something in between. While the continuous model has a more difficult time justifying this latter finding, the categorical model is not as good when it comes to explaining how expressions are recognized at different intensities or modes. Most importantly, both models have problems explaining how one can recognize combinations of emotion categories such as happily surprised versus angrily surprised versus surprise. To resolve these issues, in the past several years, we have worked on a revised model that justifies the results reported in the cognitive science and neuroscience literature. This model consists of C distinct continuous spaces. Multiple (compound) emotion categories can be recognized by linearly combining these C face spaces. The dimensions of these spaces are shown to be mostly configural. According to this model, the major task for the classification of facial expressions of emotion is precise, detailed detection of facial landmarks rather than recognition. We provide an overview of the literature justifying the model, show how the resulting model can be employed to build algorithms for the recognition of facial expression of emotion, and propose research directions in machine learning and computer vision researchers to keep pushing the state of the art in these areas. We also discuss how the model can aid in studies of human perception, social interactions and disorders.

Beyond surprise: a longitudinal study on the experience of visual-tactual incongruities in products

Abstract: When people encounter products with visual-tactual incongruities, they are likely to be surprised because the product feels different than expected. In this paper, we investigate (1) the relationship between surprise and the overall liking of the products, (2) the emotions associated with surprise, and (3) the long-term effects of surprise. We created products that were similar in visual appearance but that differed in their tactual characteristics. Participants evaluated the same products at three different points in time. Surprise was often followed by the emotions interest, fascination, amusement, confusion, indignation and irritation. We suggest that the liking for surprising products may be the composite effect of a decreased liking due to unfamiliar characteristics and increased liking due to positive emotions following surprise. Although the effect of surprise diminishes over time, it persists and can be demonstrated at multiple occasions.

Emotions During the Learning of Difficult Material

Abstract: Students experience a variety of emotions (or cognitive-affective states) when they are assigned difficult material to learn or problems to solve. We have documented the emotions that occur while college students learn and reason about topics in science and technology. The predominant learning-centered emotions are confusion, frustration, boredom, engagement/flow, curiosity, anxiety, delight, and surprise. A cognitive disequilibrium framework provides a reasonable explanation of why and how these emotions arise during difficult tasks. The student is in the state of cognitive disequilibrium when confronting impasses and obstacles, which launches a trajectory of cognitive-affective processes until equilibrium is restored, disequilibrium is dampened, or the student disengages from the task. Most of our work has been conducted in computerized learning environments (such as AutoTutor and Operation Acquiring Research Investigative and Evaluative Skills! (ARIES)) that help students learn with pedagogical agents that hold conversations in natural language. An emotion-sensitive AutoTutor detects student's emotions and adaptively responds in ways to enhance learning and motivation.

Recognizing vocal emotions in Mandarin Chinese: A validated database of Chinese vocal emotional stimuli.

Abstract: To establish a valid database of vocal emotional stimuli in Mandarin Chinese, a set of Chinese pseudosentences (i.e., semantically meaningless sentences that resembled real Chinese) were produced by four native Mandarin speakers to express seven emotional meanings: anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, pleasant surprise, and neutrality. These expressions were identified by a group of native Mandarin listeners in a seven-alternative forced choice task, and items reaching a recognition rate of at least three times chance performance in the seven-choice task were selected as a valid database and then subjected to acoustic analysis. The results demonstrated expected variations in both perceptual and acoustic patterns of the seven vocal emotions in Mandarin. For instance, fear, anger, sadness, and neutrality were associated with relatively high recognition, whereas happiness, disgust, and pleasant surprise were recognized less accurately. Acoustically, anger and pleasant surprise exhibited relatively high mean f0 values and large variation in f0 and amplitude; in contrast, sadness, disgust, fear, and neutrality exhibited relatively low mean f0 values and small amplitude variations, and happiness exhibited a moderate mean f0 value and f0 variation. Emotional expressions varied systematically in speech rate and harmonics-to-noise ratio values as well. This validated database is available to the research community and will contribute to future studies of emotional prosody for a number of purposes. To access the database, please contact pan.liu@mail.mcgill.ca.

On Surprise, Change, and the Effect of Recent Outcomes

Abstract: The leading models of human and animal learning rest on the assumption that individuals tend to select the alternatives that led to the best recent outcomes. The current research highlights three boundaries of this “recency” assumption. Analysis of the stock market and simple laboratory experiments suggests that positively surprising obtained payoffs, and negatively surprising forgone payoffs reduce the rate of repeating the previous choice. In addition, all previous trails outcomes, except the latest outcome (most recent), have similar effect on future choices. We show that these results, and other robust properties of decisions from experience, can be captured with a simple addition to the leading models: the assumption that surprise triggers change.

Hiding under the skin: A welcome surprise in psoriasis

Abstract: Until 2005, tissue inflammation associated with T cell activation was considered to originate largely from T helper type 1 (TH1) or TH2 cells, which produce opposing cytokines and may crossregulate each other. However, a major revision to what is known about the mechanisms of T cell inflammation occurred when it was discovered that a new T cell subset, termed TH17 cells (because they produce interleukin-17 (IL-17)), mediates pathogenic inflammation in experimental autoimmune encephalitis, a mouse model of multiple sclerosis1. Until now, it has been an open question whether this population of T cells has a major pathogenic role in any T cell–mediated human disease, such as psoriasis. In mice, TH17 cells selectively synthesize the inflammatory cytokines IL-17 and IL-22. However, in humans, the production of these two cytokines has diverged into two discrete T cell subsets, TH17 and TH22 cells, which produce IL-17 and IL-22, respectively. This finding further expands the potential T cell subsets that could mediate inflammatory disease in humans. Psoriasis vulgaris is a T cell–mediated inflammatory disease of the skin that affects millions of people across the world2. Affected individuals develop red, raised and scaling skin lesions sometimes affecting the majority of the skin, have a shorter lifespan and are at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, obesity, metabolic dysregulation/diabetes and psoriatic arthritis3. Psoriasis skin lesions contain excessive numbers of skin-homing T cells that are activated by cutaneous dendritic cells to produce inflammatory cytokines. Activated T cells in psoriasis belong to the TH1, TH17 and TH22 cell subsets defined by the production of interferon-g (IFN-g), IL-17A and IL-17F, and IL-22, respectively. In turn, local production of these inflammatory cytokines induces disease-defining epidermal hyperplasia and inflammation by changing the transcriptional profiles of keratinocytes and other types of skin cells (more than 4,000 gene transcripts are altered in psoriasis skin lesions compared to normal adjacent skin)4. Because of the abundant expression of cytokine-specific gene transcripts, it has been proposed that the psoriasis phenotype requires all T cell subsets to be coactivated in focal skin regions5. However, in inflammatory skin models that share some features with psoriasis, substantial reactions have been produced by injecting IL-23 (ref. 6) alone (a cytokine that selectively induces the accumulation of TH17 cells in the skin) or topical application of the Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) agonist imiquimod7. With both treatments, skin hyperplasia and inflammation are mediated primarily by IL-22, which is produced by mouse TH17 cells, whereas IL-17 seems to have a lesser role. The role of interferon-g in skin inflammation is less clear, although a large fraction of the induced genes in human psoriasis are traceable to interferons as transcriptional activators. Several cytokines that have elevated expression in psoriasis, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF), IL-22 and IL-17, have numerous additive and synergistic interactions, further complicating our understanding of the pathogenic roles for individual molecules in psoriasis. Still, the dominant view of disease pathogenesis within model systems has IL-22 as the most prominent ‘driver’ cytokine of skin pathology; however, upstream regulation by IL-23 is also important. Because skin inflammation models have been imperfect predictors of the therapeutic effects of cytokine antagonists in psoriasis vulgaris, there has been an evolving effort to antagonize specific cytokines in individuals with psoriasis and determine the effects on clinical disease activity, tissue structure, infiltrating leukocytes and molecular pathology. Consistent with the ‘mixed effect’ cytokine model, antagonism of TH1, TH17 and TH22 cells by blocking the upstream cytokines IL-12 and IL-23 with ustekinumab (an antibody targeted to the common p40 subunit of IL-12 and IL-23) produced high-grade clinical improvement in 70–80% of treated individuals, whereas similar improvement occurred in <5% of patients treated with placebo. Also consistent with this model, the single antagonism of IL-22 with a neutralizing antibody did not induce high-grade improvements in a large fraction of patients with psoriasis. It is thus surprising that blocking IL-17 in humans leads to extremely rapid and highlevel disease reversal in >80% of treated individuals. Recently, two studies in which subjects with extensive psoriasis were treated with one of two different IL-17 antagonists, ixekizumab (an IL-17A–specific antibody) or brodalumab (an antibody to the IL-17 receptor A subunit that blocks signaling of IL-17A, IL-17F and IL-25) were published this year. With the highest dose of ixekizumab, 82% of individuals showed strong clinical improvement (at least 75% reduction in clinical disease score) at 12 weeks compared to 8% of individuals that showed improvement with placebo treatment8. With brodalumab, 82% of subjects in a high-dose group attained strong clinical improvement compared to 0% in the placebo group9. Clinical responses were rapid, with many individuals having near maximal improvement within 6 weeks of starting treatment, which is faster than the responses seen with many other therapies. The end response attained showed a virtual elimination of disease-defining tissue pathology: epidermal hyperplasia and immune-cell infiltration were reversed in biopsies from treated individuals. A small study of ixekizumab in psoriasis previously showed that treatment with this antibody normalized the expression of hundreds of disease-related genes after only 2 weeks10. This result is remarkable in two ways: first, the molecular response to IL-17 inhibition is much larger at 2 weeks compared to the response to TNF inhibition with etanercept, and second, the range of genes that are moduJames G. Krueger is at the Laboratory for

Is anyone there? Drawings as a tool to detect deceit in occupation interviews

Abstract: In the present experiment 17 truth tellers and 16 liars were asked to verbally describe and sketch their workplace. We measured (i) the amount of detail included in the verbal description/sketch; (ii) the plausibility of the verbal description/sketch; (iii) the number of people verbally described/sketched; and (iv) the level of detail in which these people were verbally described/sketched. Differences between truth tellers and liars emerged on all four variables in the drawings whereas only one difference (the number of people described) emerged in the verbal accounts. Two possible explanations for the efficiency of drawings as a veracity assessment tool in this experiment are discussed. First, the request to sketch came as a surprise to participants and, second, sketching creates a unique problem for liars: more so than a verbal request, the request to sketch forces an interviewee to convey spatial information.

Surprise and humor in product design: Designing sensory metaphors in multiple modalities

Abstract: When information from two or more sensory modalities conflicts, this can evoke a surprise reaction as well as feelings of amusement, interest, confusion or disappointment. In concurrence to joke theory, we argue that people appreciate and enjoy appropriate incongruities that can be related back to the product, whereas they are confused by and have negative opinions towards inappropriate incongruities. This paper reports the design and the evaluation of products in two categories (rubber duckies and deodorants), with (in)appropriate sensory incongruities of three types: visual-tactual, visual-olfactory and visual-auditory. Participants evaluated the level of surprise felt and the intensity of resulting emotions. They also indicated their overall liking for the products. Both appropriate and inappropriate incongruities were evaluated as surprising as well as confusing. As expected, appropriate incongruities evoked more amusement and were generally favored. Whereas products with visualtactual incongruities showed large differences in ratings on liking and amusement between appropriate and inappropriate incongruities, these differences were smaller for products with visual-auditory and visual-olfactory incongruities. Possibly, the appropriateness of an incongruity is more conspicuous when it is brought about by a conflict between touch and vision than when olfaction or audition are involved.

Gender Differences in Memory for What Others Say About Themselves and Their Family Members

Abstract: Do women have a recall advantage for what others say? And does it matter what type of information another person shares with them? Women’s greater interdependence in self-construal was predicted to give them an advantage over men in their memory for information shared about close others. In an experimental study, 124 undergraduate students (64 women and 60 men) from a Midwestern university in the United States watched either a videotaped male or female target discussing his or her lifestyle habits, health goals, and family. Participants then completed a surprise recognition test of their memory for what the target had said. Results show men were as accurate as women at remembering personal information shared by the targets, but women more accurately recalled what was said about the targets’ family members. The implications of these findings for various professional relationships are discussed.

Researchers of the World, Create!

Abstract: In this article, the author wants to work against simplified and mechanical notions of qualitative research simultaneously illustrating that researchers have a choice. The author aims to create an overlapping and plural text that is dynamic, presenting possibilities for surprise and more intensive experiences with research and texts. More specifically, the author disrupts the traditional ordered narrative in a conceptualizing and critiquing of methodological simplicity through the use of voids, intervals (reflections, disclosures, images), and examples from other researchers. The author proposes that methodological multiplicity and complexity can move researchers toward conceptual, analytical, and interpretive spaces that can meet the needs of ever-changing communities of practice.

Coming in at an Unusual Angle: Exo-Surprise and the Fieldworking Cosmonaut

Abstract: Valentin Lebedev is a pioneer of space and earth science in Russia. He is also the first ethnographic diarist of outer space. In 1982, while “on orbit” for 211 days as a fieldworking cosmonaut, Lebedev produced a thickly descriptive account of the intimate sociality and technoculture of the Soviet space complex Salyut 7. Crafted to defamiliarize (ostranenie) a spaceworld that publics saw as flawlessly engineered and managed, the diary is an argument for the value of exospheric (exo-) surprise in human experience. But on another level, we learn that the surprise is on humans who would claim to conquer “space-as-itself”—a “zero gravity” environment of force fields both extremely inhospitable to life as we know it and also generative of life in all its expressions.

A more than relational geography

Abstract: Anderson et al.’s (2012) attempt to put assemblage thinking onto a firmer ontological footing is to be welcomed. Whether their spaced-out ontology is postrelational, however, is more open to question. The shadow of realism looms large over their account and poses the question as to what kinds of entities make and are made through relations. In this respect, I argue that a more than relational geography may be the more appropriate ontology to think through the basis of assemblage thinking. If so, the kind of realism that comes into play may be of surprise to some geographers.

Novelty, Information and Surprise

Abstract: The book offers a new approach to information theory that is more general then the classical approach by Shannon. The classical definition of information is given for an alphabet of symbols or for a set of mutually exclusive propositions (a partition of the probability space ) with corresponding probabilities adding up to 1. The new definition is given for an arbitrary cover of , i.e. for a set of possibly overlapping propositions. The generalized information concept is called novelty and it is accompanied by two new concepts derived from it, designated as information and surprise, which describe "opposite" versions of novelty, information being related more to classical information theory and surprise being related more to the classical concept of statistical significance. In the discussion of these three concepts and their interrelations several properties or classes of covers are defined, which turn out to be lattices. The book also presents applications of these new concepts, mostly in statistics and in neuroscience.

Controversies, Questions, and Prospects for Spontaneous Social Inferences

Abstract: Three decades of research on spontaneous social inferences, particularly traits, have settled some questions and generated more. We describe that research in terms of these controversies and questions. If you think you know the story, read on because it continues to surprise all of us. It deals with such broader issues as automatic and controlled processing, the nature of meaning, causality, stages of forming inferences about others, the role of consciousness, and differences between implicit and explicit impressions. Evidence on neurological substrate is growing. Spontaneous inferences continue to be a useful tool for illuminating impression formation processes.

Moment-To-Moment Emotions During Reading

Abstract: Moment-to-moment emotions are affective states that dynamically change during reading and potentially influence comprehension. Researchers have recently identified these emotions and the emotion trajectories in reading, tutoring, and problem solving. The primary learning-centered emotions are boredom, frustration, confusion, flow (engagement), delight, surprise, and anxiety. Emotion transitions occur when the text becomes too difficult or easy for the reader and when conceptual obstacles create cognitive disequilibrium. Teachers and computer environments have the potential to improve reading comprehension by detecting and strategically handling the readers’ boredom, frustration, and confusion. One frontier in reading research is to understand the complex dance between comprehension and emotions.

Self-Explanation in Adaptive Systems

Abstract: The behaviour of self adaptive systems can be emergent. The difficulty in predicting the system's behaviour means that there is scope for the system to surprise its customers and its developers. Because its behaviour is emergent, a self-adaptive system needs to garner confidence in its customers and it needs to resolve any surprise on the part of the developer during testing and mainteinance. We believe that these two functions can only be achieved if a self-adaptive system is also capable of self-explanation. We argue a self-adaptive system's behaviour needs to be explained in terms of satisfaction of its requirements. Since self-adaptive system requirements may themselves be emergent, a means needs to be found to explain the current behaviour of the system and the reasons that brought that behaviour about. We propose the use of goal-based models during runtime to offer self-explanation of how a system is meeting its requirements, and why the means of meeting these were chosen. We discuss the results of early experiments in self-explanation, and set out future work.

Influence of Gender on Judgment of Dark and Nondark Humor

Abstract: We examined gender differences in the perception of dark and nondark humor. Judgment ratings based on four humor characteristics (Surprise, Incongruity, Comprehension and Funniness) were assessed. Results revealed significant differences in the perception of dark and nondark humorous cartoons for women only. Women rated nondark cartoons as less incongruous and less surprising but more comprehensible and funny than dark ones. Furthermore, for men (n = 150) and women (n = 150), Surprise and Comprehension ratings were both significant predictors of the funniness of nondark cartoons. However, Funniness predictors of dark cartoons were modulated by gender. These results reflect general inter-individual differences on the appreciation of specific forms of humor and extend Suls's cognitive model (1972) of humor.

What Does it Take to Make Surprises Less Surprising

Abstract: It is not unusual for public management systems to be ‘caught by surprise’ when events unfold which had not been anticipated in policy processes. An empirical example from New Zealand is used to show the contribution complexity theory has to make to helping public management scholars and practitioners understand the origin of surprises and anticipate them. This illustrative case identifies a number of unforeseen events in tertiary education, their origins and effects through a complexity-informed lens. These self-organizing changes can be the source of unwanted surprises (unknown unknowns) which require complexity-compatible approaches to their anticipation and management.

Contrarian Share Price Reactions to Earnings Surprises

Abstract: A persistent (but overlooked) feature of the cross-sectional distribution of quarterly earnings announcement returns is that the measured earnings surprise and share price response to that surprise...

The final trip: post-mortal mobility in Sweden

Abstract: In contemporary migration and mobility research, the main focus is on humans when theyare alive, which of course is no surprise. This study, however, focuses on the mobility of the deceased, orpost ...

In Dialogue: Social Constructionism and Radical Constructivism

Abstract: These approaches have a number of things in common, (a) For a start, rather than focus on "things" and "substances," studies should focus on "activities"; not just on any activities in general, however, but on creative, formative, or constructive activities of a self-reproductive, self-sustaining, or reflexive kind, (b) In the growth of knowledge, "making" is more important than "finding," and creative processes are more important than processes of discovery, (c) We also take it for granted that it no longer makes sense to talk of our knowledge of an absolute reality-of our knowledge of a world independent of us-because for us there is no "external world," as it used to be called, (d) Indeed, if we can have any contacts at all with any "thing" or "activity" beyond or outside of the constructionist or constructivist activities-contacts or resistances that might surprise us, then their character remains unknown to us, except in relation to the activities from within which all our knowing takes place (Harre, 1990; Shorter, 1984,1993). (e) Thus, given our interest in what goes on within one or another kind of constructive activity, although most of us still claim to be concerned with theory or theories instead of trying to test them in terms of their degree of correspondence to a supposed external world-appealing in the process to truth as accuracy of representation-as problematic,9 and von Glasersfeld is wrong to see the issue as hinging simply on "points of failure." As Wittgenstein (1953) pointed out, there are "countless" ways that our concepts might be linked to our surroundings. Thus, we do face a problem in explaining how we might construct those links, and why some, but not other, ways of talking are effective for us in doing this. It is not just a matter of some conceptions that are viable within a student's experiential world-to use von Glasersfeld's terms-failing when confronted by counterexamples presented by the good teacher. As Gergen points out, matters of authority are at stake here also. That is, by what authority do the examples in question count as counterexamples? In this connection, von Glasersfeld's invocation of Mandelbrot's (1982) theory of fractals-to show that what we call the coastline of a country is utterly indeterminate and is therefore "something we [as individuals] construct" (my emphasis and additions)—seems to undermine , rather than strengthen, his claim for the primacy of individual experiential worlds over socially constructed ones. It is in terms of points of physical contact that no determinate outcome is possible; measuring a coastline is clearly a social practice, and is no doubt open to argumentative debate. For students at least (but clearly for mature scientists as well), respect for, if not struggles with, socially established authorities are everywhere a part of doing science, Galileo being a case in point.

How Writing Touches: An Intimate Scholarly Collaboration

Abstract: Five scholars, with varying histories together, met as writers at a workshop at the 2007 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry and made a commitment to write over the following year to, for and with each other in an experiment in the craft of autoethnography, an experiment that led us to explore questions of intimacy and connection manifested through collaborative writing. Each year since then we have returned to Congress to read a small anthology of the year9s writing—and to decide whether or not to continue. This paper is drawn from our third year of writing together across the changing distances, as our bodies moved and lay still in both unfamiliar and familiar spaces. Within castles and beside oceans, on pastures and in homes, at universities and hospitals, we wrote together, between and amongst our group of five, working, as always, it seems, at who and what we are becoming. The joy of our continuing writing presence in each others9 lives, our pleasure and surprise at such friendship, earned through hard writing labor, is manifest alongside an awareness that there is always more to do. We turn and return to love and intimacy as scholarly, messy, complex methodology as we send writing to each other that we, in turn, pick up on—and sometimes do not—in our responses; writing that often affirms and sometimes disturbs.