• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.3-20
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aging on visuo-spatial attention allocation ability and emotional perception bias. We used the useful field of view (UFOV) task to measure the visuo-spatial attention allocation ability and the emotional perception task to measure positive and negative emotional perception bias. A total of 48 participants took part in this study with 23 participants in the senior group and 25 in the junior group. The senior group showed slower response time and lower accuracy than the junior group in the UFOV task, indicating that the senior group had lower visuo-spatial attention allocation ability than the junior group. In the emotional perception task, the senior group showed both positive and negative emotional perception bias more than the junior group. The correlation analysis showed that the negative emotional perception bias for accuracy in the emotional perception task showed a positive correlation with the response time to the stimuli presented in the visual angle 30° in the UFOV task (r=.289). In addition, positive emotional perception bias for the accuracy in the emotional perception task showed a positive correlation with the accuracy of the stimuli presented in the visual angles 10°, 20°, and 30° in the UFOV task (r=.305, r=.322, and r=.299, respectively). However, it showed a negative correlation with the response time of the stimuli presented in the same location in the UFOV task (r=-.345, r=-.295, r=-.308). These results suggest that aging is associated with a decrease in the visuo-spatial attention allocation ability and perceptual bias toward positive and negative emotions. In addition, the positive and negative emotional perception biases associated with aging are potentially related to the reduced visuo-spatial attention allocation ability.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.145-158
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the visuo-spatial attention ability and the emotional perception ability of people across the normal range of the scores on the bipolar disorder scale. The Korean version of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (K-MDQ) was used to measure the bipolar disorder tendency of normal people. A useful field of view (UFOV) task and an emotional perception task were used to measure visuo-spatial attention and emotional perception ability, respectively. The participants did not have any mental illness history or other medical problems. The participants were divided into three groups according to K-MDQ score (low, normal, and high), and their performances were compared. In the UFOV task, the high K-MDQ score group had lower level of performance than the other groups, suggesting that a high bipolar tendency is associated with reduction of visuo-spatial attention ability. In the emotional perception task, the group with the high K-MDQ score showed higher perception of negative emotion bias than the other groups, suggesting a high bipolar tendency to associate with reduction of emotional perception ability. These results suggest that visuo-spatial and emotional attention abilities are related with bipolar disorder tendency even in the normal population.