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Human faces automatically attract visual attention and this process appears to be guided by social group memberships. In two experiments, we examined how social groups guide selective attention toward in-group and out-group faces. Black and White participants detected a target letter among letter strings superimposed on faces (Experiment 1). White participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (Black) compared to in-group (White) distractor faces. Likewise, Black participants were less accurate on trials with racial out-group (White) compared to in-group (Black) distractor faces. However, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load-when the task was visually difficult. To examine the malleability of this pattern of racial bias, a separate sample of participants were assigned to mixed-race minimal groups (Experiment 2). Participants assigned to groups were less accurate on trials with their minimal in-group members compared to minimal out-group distractor faces, regardless of race. Again, this pattern of out-group bias was only evident under high perceptual load. Taken together, these results suggest that social identity guides selective attention toward motivationally relevant social groups-shifting from out-group bias in the domain of race to in-group bias in the domain of minimal groups-when perceptual resources are scarce.

The current research examines whether trait anxiety is associated with negative interpretation bias when resolving valence ambiguity of surprised faces. To further isolate the neuro-cognitive mechanism, we presented angry, happy, and surprised faces at broad spatial frequency (BSF), high spatial frequency (HSF), and low spatial frequency (LSF) and asked participants to determine the valence of each face. High trait anxiety was associated with more negative interpretations of BSF (i.e., intact) surprised faces. However, the modulation of trait anxiety on the negative interpretation of surprised faces disappeared at HSF and LSF. The current study provides evidence that trait anxiety modulates negative interpretations of BSF surprised faces. However, the negative interpretation of LSF surprised faces appears to be a robust default response that occurs regardless of individual differences in trait anxiety.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161426.].

The neurovisceral integration model (Thayer and Lane, 2000) posits that cardiac vagal tone, indexed by heart rate variability (HRV), can indicate the functional integrity of the neural networks implicated in emotion-cognition interactions. Our recent findings begin to disentangle how HRV is associated with both top-down and bottom-up cognitive processing of emotional stimuli. Higher resting HRV is associated with more adaptive and functional top-down and bottom-up cognitive modulation of emotional stimuli, which may facilitate effective emotion regulation. Conversely, lower resting HRV is associated with hyper-vigilant and maladaptive cognitive responses to emotional stimuli, which may impede emotion regulation. In the present paper, we recapitulate the neurovisceral integration model and review recent findings that shed light on the relationship between HRV and top-down and bottom-up visual perception and attention to emotional stimuli, which may play an important role in emotion regulation. Further implications of HRV on individual well-being and mental health are discussed.

Two experiments tested whether the cross-race effect (CRE) was mitigated more effectively by the own-gender effect (OGE) than minimal group manipulations. In experiment one, White participants were randomly assigned to one of two colour teams. They studied 16 faces (divided as follows: Black female, White female, Black male, and White male) half which were visually identified as team members. Face gender, via the OGE, but not colour teams mitigated the CRE in female participants such that White male faces were more accurately recognized than Black male faces, while White and Black female faces were recognized equally well. Experiment two replicated experiment one and tested whether university affiliation was a promising CRE mitigator. Again, only face gender mitigated the CRE in female participants. These results suggest that at least in White female participants the CRE may be more effectively mitigated by the OGE compared to commonly used minimal group manipulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study explored whether a Moving Pictures Experts Group-3 (MP3) delivery of a Religiously Oriented Mindfulness (ROM) intervention would improve mindfulness, increase cardiac vagal tone, and decrease Personal Burnout for a sample of social workers. To examine the efficacy of such a ROM, pre and posttest data were collected from N = 22 social workers in vivo (at job or university sites) using the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and the Personal Burn-out dimension of the Copenhagen Burnout Scale. Paired-sample t-tests revealed significant differences between pre-and-posttest measures, indicating improvements on all measures with medium to large effect sizes for the MAAS, and HRV, and a smaller effect size for the decrease in Personal Burnout at posttest. ROM is effective in improving mindfulness, increasing HRV, and decreasing Personal Burnout in social workers. The religious nature of this mindfulness intervention, as well as the in vivo nature of this study design is novel in mindfulness studies. The results of this pilot study warrant further exploration of how a religious integration of practices in mindfulness can be effective in improving mindfulness, and self-regulatory function, and preventing burnout in social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]