Human beings can show preferentially attentional bias to different facial expressions. However, it is unclear whether the modulation of selective attention by facial expressions is based on the face itself (object-based attention) or its location (space-based attention). The current study aimed to test this problem by using faces with different emotional valences in the two-rectangle paradigm across three experiments. We found that there was no significant difference in space-based effect among the positive, neutral, and negative conditions. However, the object-based effect was larger for the negative condition than for the neutral and positive ones, because of its slower reaction times for the invalid different-object trials. The results indicated that the object-based attentional selection was modulated by facial expressions, and that faces expressing negative emotions hamper the disengagement of attention from the whole object (i.e., the face), instead of the certain location. Our study can further add support to the attentional prioritization hypothesis over attentional spreading hypothesis.

中文翻译：

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EXPRESS：面部表情对基于对象的注意选择的调制

人类可以对不同的面部表情表现出优先注意偏差。然而，目前尚不清楚面部表情对选择性注意力的调制是基于面部本身（基于对象的注意力）还是基于其位置（基于空间的注意力）。当前的研究旨在通过在三个实验中使用具有不同情绪效价的面孔在两个矩形范式中测试这个问题。我们发现，在积极、中性和消极条件下，天基效应没有显着差异。然而，基于对象的影响对于消极条件比中性和积极条件更大，因为它对无效的不同对象试验的反应时间较慢。结果表明，基于对象的注意力选择受面部表情的调节，并且表达负面情绪的面孔阻碍了注意力从整个物体（即面部）而不是特定位置上脱离。我们的研究可以进一步支持注意力优先假设而不是注意力传播假设。