Contrasting vertical and horizontal representations of affect in emotional visual search

Damjanovic, Ljubica; Santiago, Julio · 2016 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3758/s13423-015-0884-6

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Summary

This study investigates the relative strength and simultaneous activation of vertical (“up = good”) and horizontal (“right = good”) spatial metaphors in emotional visual search. While previous research established that emotional evaluation maps onto both spatial axes, it remained unclear which mapping dominates when both are available during attentional orienting tasks. The authors hypothesized that the vertical metaphor is more salient and universally activated than the horizontal one, which relies more heavily on motor fluency and handedness. To test this, the researchers conducted two experiments using a visual search task where participants detected an emotional target face (happy or angry) among three neutral distractors. The faces were presented in four spatial locations: top, bottom, left, and right. Experiment 1 used cropped, grayscale facial stimuli to control for external features, while Experiment 2 used full-color, intact faces to enhance ecological validity. Both experiments involved 18 right-handed participants who responded as quickly and accurately as possible to indicate whether the faces showed the same or different emotions. Reaction times and error rates were analyzed to determine if metaphor-congruent locations (e.g., happy faces at the top or right) facilitated detection. The results consistently demonstrated a significant conceptual congruency effect along the vertical dimension but not along the horizontal dimension. In both experiments, participants detected happy faces significantly faster when they appeared in the top location compared to the bottom location, supporting the “up = good” metaphor. However, there was no significant difference in detection speed for happy faces between the right and left locations, indicating that the “right = good” metaphor did not influence performance. Additionally, angry faces did not show a facilitation effect in the bottom location, suggesting the asymmetry is specific to positive affect. Error rate analyses mirrored these findings, showing no significant interaction between emotion and horizontal location. These findings indicate that the vertical spatial representation of affect is more salient and readily activated than the horizontal representation during simultaneous processing. The study concludes that when task contexts afford both mappings, the “up = good” metaphor outcompetes the “right = good” metaphor. This suggests that vertical spatial mappings are more automatic and robust in guiding attention for emotional stimuli, likely due to their stronger experiential basis involving gravity and posture, whereas horizontal mappings are less consistent and potentially more dependent on specific motor or cultural factors.

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• visual search