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The present study aimed at investigating the relation between field dependence- independence, measured by means of the Embedded Figure Test (EFT), and performance on the Simon task, which is usually employed to assess cognitive control processes. 20 participants classified as field-dependent and 20 participants classified as field-independent were administered a Simon task in which they had to emit a lateralized response according to the color of a left or right- presented stimulus by ignoring its location. Results showed a larger Simon effect (i.e., faster responses when stimulus and response locations spatially corresponded than when they did not correspond) for participants classified as field dependent than for those classified as field independent. The analysis of the Simon effect as a function of correspondence sequence showed no difference between the two groups. These results seem to suggest that the ability to deal with a conflict within a trial and the ability to modify performance based on the conflict experienced in a prior trial depend on different mechanisms. Our data suggest that only the first ability is related to the cognitive style of field dependence-independence.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the processing of the emotional and non-emotional facial expression and facial features of unfamiliar faces in individuals with Asperger's syndrome (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA). To this end, we tested 14 Adults with AS and HFA and 12 typically developing individuals, matched for age and education level, in a recognition task of faces in which internal features (e.g., eyes size), emotional and non-emotional facial expressions could or could not have been manipulated. Participants were asked first to undergo the recognition task and then a change detection task of the manipulation. Results show not only a face recognition impairment (lower accuracy) in the autistic group, but also a difference in the processing of facial changeable and unchangeable features, and between emotional and non-emotional expressions.

According to the appraisal theory, stimuli which are relevant for human well-being are processed primarily by the attentional system, especially those which have social characteristics (e.g., fearful faces with averted gaze direction). The purpose of this study was to investigate, using the paradigm of the affective priming, whether and how the processing of the specific combination of emotional facial expressions and gaze directions may trigger an emotional evaluation. Furthermore we assessed whether this activation may be long lasting and influencing (i.e., facilitate or delay) the processing of a following stimulus and, more specifically, how this process may differ in two distinct age groups (children vs. teenagers). Findings showed a specific interference of emotion related to age: only the teenagers were able to process the emotional association between two stimuli.

Happy faces are categorized faster than sad or angry faces (Happy Face Advantage). Violent video game play, in addition to having negative effects on social behavior, can lead to a reduction of the HFA, speeding up the categorization of angry faces. However, it is not clear whether violent video game play could have an effect on facial emotion categorization accuracy. The goal of our study was to investigate whether the use of a violent videogame could have an impact on accuracy rates in a fast categorization task of happy and angry faces. 24 students were asked to play either a neutral (N=12) or a violent (N=12) videogame, and subsequently to categorize emotional faces. Participants who played the violent videogame committed more errors with happy faces (by categorizing them as angry) than those who played the neutral videogame, thus indicating that violent videogames could cause a categorization bias, leading to the recognition of happy faces as hostile faces.

In the face processing models there is a dissociation between the recognition of emotional expressions and the recognition of personal identity. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible new dissociation for facial expressions, in particular between emotional facial expressions and non-emotional facial expressions i.e., expressions that don't have an affective meaning. To this end, the stimuli consisted of faces in which we selectively manipulated either the features, the emotional facial expressions, or the nonemotional facial expressions. Seventy eight students performed a same/different task and a change detection task on the stimuli in upright and inverted orientations. Each of the three different manipulations had a different impact on the inversion effect, suggesting a different modality to the processing of non-emotional facial expressions.