Executive Function and Decision Making in Emotional Face Processing Tasks (2024)

Undergraduate: Emma Chow

Faculty Advisor: Aysenil Belger
Department: Psychology and Neuroscience

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Emotional face-processing tasks offer insight into how people respond to emotional expressions and regulate their emotions when making decisions and processing information. This study examines the differences between emotional face processing tasks utilizing red versus black letters - aiming to inform researchers using these tasks and explore decision making and executive function. The project seeks to understand how color affects information salience, the effect of color on interference from emotional face, and the impact of anxiety on this process. Initial data from ten participants, who completed a screening survey and a one-hour in-person session, including the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)and emotional face processing tasks with red and black letters, show a significant relationship between letter color and reaction time. Furthermore, although not statistically significant, there is a trend for fearful faces to elicit a higher percentage of correct hits and faster reaction time, irrespective of letter color. These findings are preliminary due to sample size, and future research with more participants is needed to clarify these relationships.

Link to Abstract