• 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.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.35-50
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• 2020

This study aimed to investigate the changes of emotional perception biases according to the level of social phobia and the relationship with visuospatial attention allocation ability. This study used the Korean self-report assessment test (Korean version of social avoidance and distress, K-SAD) to measure the level of social phobia. Moreover, the emotional perception and useful field of view (UFOV) tasks were employed for measuring emotional perception biases and visuospatial attention allocation ability, respectively. A total of 118 participants participated in this experiment, and only 107 (males: 94, females: 13) data were analyzed due to the exclusion of response errors and other statistical problems. The average age of the participants used in the analysis was 21 years (SD: 3.64), and those participants were divided into three groups according to the K-SAD scores. Consequently, all experimental groups showed negative emotional perception biases in the emotional perception task, but the magnitudes of the biases of each group were not significantly different. Furthermore, the positive emotional perception biases were higher at higher levels of social phobia, which could be related to the tendency of interpreting positive stimuli negatively. In the UFOV task, the higher the level of social phobia, the lower the visuospatial attention allocation ability. These results suggest that the deterioration of visuospatial attention allocation ability potentially contributes to the increase of positive emotional perception biases by being difficult to perceive external stimuli. Thus, this paper discusses the potential contribution of visuospatial attention allocation ability to the increased perceptual biases of positive emotions as the level of social phobia increases.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.31-44
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• 2019

This study intended to investigate the effects of the subtitle location on the decreased working memory abilities caused by aging. A junior group (average age: 26, SD: 3.06, N=27) and a senior group (average age: 61.69, SD=4.18, N=26) participated in this study and they all performed N-back tasks which measured the working memory ability of the participants and video subtitle recognition tasks that assessed the most effectively recognized subtitle locations in the video. The results of the N-back task revealed slower response times and low accuracy rates in the senior group in comparison to the junior group, suggesting lower working memory abilities in the senior group vis-à-vis the junior group. The deterioration of working memory due to aging also negatively influenced the 'left-bottom' subtitle location in the video subtitle recognition task and positively influenced the 'left-center' location of the screen. The deterioration of working memory ability did not affect other subtitle locations. By examining the positive or negative effects of the deterioration of working memory ability as a function of age on subtitle locations, the present study suggests that the selection of suitable subtitle locations taking into account the ages of video viewers would cause information to be more effectively displayed on screen.