Recent findings on emotion comparison show a typical pattern of motor reactivity rising from attentional capture. When pairs of emotional faces are presented simultaneously, the most intense emotional face is recognized faster (Emotional Semantic Congruency—ESC effect). Furthermore, a global response speed advantage for emotional pairs with positive rather than negative average emotion intensity is observed (i.e., emotional size effect), with the choice for the happiest face resulting in a faster response than the choice for the angriest face within the pair (i.e., the happiness advantage). In two experiments, we asked whether these effects are orientation dependent, and thus linked to whether face processing is holistic or part-based. Participants were asked to choose the angriest/happiest face in emotional pairs displayed either in upright or inverted orientation and including (Experiment 1) or not including (Experiment 2) a neutral face. Beyond an overall facilitation for upright relative to inverted pairs, results showed orientation independent ESC and emotional size effects. Furthermore, the happiness advantage was present in emotional pairs of Experiment 2 but not in emotional pairs of Experiment 1, independently from face orientation. Together, results suggest that attentional capture in emotion comparison is immaterial on the type of face processing, being orientation invariant.

最近关于情绪比较的研究结果显示了从注意力捕获中产生的运动反应的典型模式。当同时呈现成对的情绪面孔时，最强烈的情绪面孔会被更快地识别（情绪语义一致性——ESC效应）。此外，观察到具有积极而不是消极平均情绪强度的情绪对的全局响应速度优势（即情绪大小效应），选择最快乐的面孔比选择该对中最愤怒的面孔产生更快的反应（即幸福优势）。在两个实验中，我们询问这些效果是否与方向相关，从而与面部处理是整体的还是基于部分的有关。参与者被要求在以直立或倒置方向显示的情感对中选择最愤怒/最快乐的面孔，并包括（实验 1）或不包括（实验 2）中性面孔。除了相对于倒立对的整体促进作用之外，结果还显示了与方向无关的 ESC 和情绪大小效应。此外，幸福优势存在于实验 2 的情感对中，但不存在于实验 1 的情感对中，与面部朝向无关。总之，结果表明，情绪比较中的注意力捕获对于面部处理的类型并不重要，因为方向不变。