Louis G. Tassinary

Texas A&M University | TAMU · College of Architecture, Department of Visualization

Surface electromyographic recordings in humans were first made less than 70 years ago, and the electromyographic study of covert facial actions during affect and emotion has less than a 20-year history. Despite the relative youth of facial electromyography, its use in combination with autonomic measures and comprehensive overt facial action coding...

Recent research has led to increasingly sophisticated conjectures as to the roles that genetic heritage, prior experience, and environmental context play in the production and maintenance of complex behaviors. The field of evolutionary psychology was born of such conjectures (Stanley, 1895) and now serves as a niche for a growing number of research...

A considerable body of folklore and scientific research alludes to the efficacy of the vernacular environment to influence both aesthetic experience and general well-being. To examine explicitly whether stress recovery and/or immunization varies as a function of the roadside environment, 160 college-age participants, both male and female, viewed on...

The human body's shape and motion afford social judgments. The body's shape, specifically the waist-to-hip ratio, has been related to perceived attractiveness. Early reports interpreted this effect to be evidence for adaptation, a theory known generally as the waist-to-hip ratio hypothesis. Many of the predictions derived from this perspective have...

As the majority of individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) live with sensory processing differences, the acoustic environment is of primary concern within interior design considerations (Martin, 2014). This research paper explores how noise levels affect the behavior of children with autism in classroom settings and use the find...

The objective of the present study is to explore the impact of acoustical design on children with autism in school classrooms. Empirical research on this topic will provide information on how interior space features and spatial environment characteristics can be used to support the learning and developmental needs of children with autism. Specifica...

The first Handbook of Psychophysiology was published more than four decades ago (Greenfield & Sternbach, 1972). Coverage in that Handbook emphasized the peripheral nervous system (PNS), an emphasis that many still identify with the term psychophysiology in accord with the history of psychophysiology. As is the case for physiological and other scien...

[T]he principal function of the nervous system is the coordinated innervation of the musculature. Its fundamental anatomical plan and working principles are understandable only on these terms. (Sperry, 1952, p. 297) We have a brain for one reason and one reason only - and that is to produce adaptable and complex movements. There is no other reason...

The Handbook of Psychophysiology has been the authoritative resource for more than a quarter of a century. Since the third edition was published a decade ago, the field of psychophysiological science has seen significant advances, both in traditional measures such as electroencephalography, event-related brain potentials, and cardiovascular assessm...

Vi ew suppl em entary m ateri al Publ i shed onl i ne: 18 J un 2015. Subm i t your arti cl e to thi s j ournal Arti cl e vi ew s: 126 Vi ew rel ated arti cl es Vi ew Crossm ark data Regular walking behaviours can improve older people's physical, psychological and social health. T his project examined the relationships between assisted living facili...

The present study explores the role of awareness in the processing of hedonically valent stimuli. We demonstrate that stimulus awareness is not necessary for stimulus valence either to elicit an affective response or to influence a subsequent cognitive decision. The results are interpreted as providing qualified support for Zajonc’s hypothesis rega...

Social perception is among the most important tasks that occur in daily life, and perceivers readily appreciate the social affordances of others. Here, we demonstrate that sex categorizations are functionally biased towards a male percept. Perceivers judged body shapes that varied in waist-to-hip ratio to be men if they were not, in reality, exclus...

People have cultivated plants and other natural elements in urban environments virtually since the advent of the earliest human cities. Recent research in the social sciences suggests that passive interactions with large scale natural environments may have health benefits. These early fmdings with large scale natural environments are consistent wit...

Two studies examined how children between ages 4 and 6 use body shape (i.e., the waist-to-hip-ratio [WHR]) for sex categorization. In Study 1 (N=73), 5- and 6-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, selected bodies with increasingly discrepant WHRs to be "most like a man" and "most like a woman." Similarly, sex category judgments made by 5- and 6-year-olds...

The US States' power to regulate reasonably the use of private property to promote public health, safety, and welfare derives from the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. Currently, a majority of states permit zoning based on aesthetics in combination with more traditional bases such as health and safety, and a minority allow zoning based solely o...

Anger and stress management have become important issues in the modern workplace. One out of four American workers report themselves to be chronically angry, which has been linked to negative outcomes such as retaliatory behavior, revenge, interpersonal aggression, poor work performance, absenteeism, and increased turnover. We hypothesized that peo...

People can accurately judge the sexual orientation of others, but the cues they use have remained elusive. In 3 studies, the authors examined how body shape and motion affect perceived sexual orientation. In 2 studies, participants judged the sexual orientation of computer-generated animations in which body shape and motion were manipulated. Gender...

People can accurately judge the sexual orientation of others, but the cues they use have remained elusive. In 3 studies, the authors examined how body shape and motion affect perceived sexual orientation. In 2 studies, participants judged the sexual orientation of computer-generated animations in which body shape and motion were manipulated. Gender...

Psychology enjoys a rich history of theorising that is rooted in Gestalt psychology (Koffka, 1935;Köhler, 1929, 1947). Gestalt psychology has informed not only our understanding of how simple geometric objects are perceptually parsed, but also how global attitudes toward objects and individuals are formed. In both cases, one’s ultimate perception i...

Memory and the Brain was Magda Arnold's final book, the capstone to an influential career that spanned half a century. Many of the proposals and insights put forth in this work foreshadowed significant theoretical developments in both psychology and the neurosciences. With few exceptions, however, modern researchers, theorists and historians have o...

We employed a novel technique to explore how the body's motion and morphology affect judgments of sex and gender. Stimuli depicted animated human walkers that varied in motion (gait patterns varying shoulder swagger and hip sway) and in morphology (waist-to-hip ratio). The potency of morphology in categorical sex judgments was confirmed. Visual sca...

The development of social contacts among neighbors is an important concern for many residents. Recent evidence suggests that social interactions occur relatively infrequently in contemporary urban neighborhoods. One intriguing hypothesis is that the frequency of social interaction in single-family neighborhoods is partially associated with the perc...

John Bulwer's Pathomyotomia of 1649 appears to be the first substantial English-language work on the muscular basis of emotional expressions. Although Bulwer's impact on modern investigators has been indirect at best, it is clear that he confronted many of the same issues concerning the nature of the emotions and their relationship to facial moveme...

Normal reference range intervals for hematologic and serum biochemical values in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) have seldom been reported. The few studies that have been conducted either report values on the basis of a small number of animals, report values for all age groups or both sexes combined, or were designed specifically to document the e...

Three converging, multimethod studies examined personality and emotional processes. Study 1 ( N = 321) examined links among sex, personality, and expectations for emotional events. In Study 2, participants ( N = 468) described contents of emotionally evocative slides to a partner (either a friend or a stranger). Participants reported their emotiona...

The virtual design studio (VDS) points to a new way of practicing and teaching architectural design. As a new phenomenon, little research has been done to evaluate design collaboration and multimedia usage in a distributed workplace like the virtual design studio. Our research provides empirical data on how students actually use multiple media duri...

Color specification is a time consuming and challenging task in computer graphics applications. In order to investigate how certain fundamental attributes of any color selection system may affect its usability, we systematically varied both color space and navigational device and measured simultaneously several usability parameters during a simple...

Chow (1996) offers a reconceptualization of statistical significance that is reasoned and comprehensive. Despite a somewhat rough presentation, his arguments are compelling and deserve to be taken seriously by the scientific community. It is argued that his characterization of literal replication, types of research, effect size, and experimental co...

Four multimethod studies probed the hypothesis, derived from the Zajonc-Markus motor theory of emotion, that facial recognition is enhanced by imitation of the faces. In all studies, participants were (a) randomly assigned to imitate or to concentrate on a set of faces presented on slides; (b) covertly videotaped, or measured for facial electromyog...

Prospective information, that is, present conditions of stimulation that are informative about a future state, e.g., the timing and/or location of an impending contact, is required for coordinating acts of interception and avoidance. In the present study, acoustic simulations of passing objects (at different speeds and distances) were produced by m...

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books , 1996, Vol 41(3), 292-293. Replies to comments made by J. R. Averill and E. Nunley (see record 2005-15469-001 ) and K. Oatley (see record 2005-15469-002 ) on L. G. Tassinary's review (see record 2004-17631-010 ) of the books Voyages of the Heart , by J. R. Averill and E. P. Nunle...

The effects of communicative intent and stimulus affectivity on facial electromyogrqphic (EMG) activity were investigated. Subjects viewed slides of pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant social or nature scenes under no instruction, inhibit-expression instructions, and amplify-expression instructions. Results revealed that facial EMG activity was highes...

Petty and Cacioppo's (1981, 1986) elaboration likelihood model of persuasion predicts that the classical conditioning of human attitudes is similar to other peripheral attitude change mechanisms in that conditioning should be more powerful when preexposure to and prior knowledge about the conditioned stimulus is low rather than high. To test this h...

William James's views on the science of psychology were as provocative as his observations of psychological and behavioral phenomena. His perspective on psychology as a natural science is reviewed briefly, the concept of "levels" is defined, and several emerging principles illustrating the importance of multilevel integrative research on mind-brain...

Complex social factors can influence physiological activity, behavior, and health, but little is known about how essential components of these factors (e.g., human association, observation) affect human physiology. To begin to address this issue, an experiment was conducted to contrast predictions from social facilitation, distraction/conflict, and...

There has been a continuing interest in many areas of psychophysiological research in the quantification of slow wave bioelectric potentials recorded from the surface of the skin. However, surprisingly little research has focused specifically on methods for stabilizing and minimizing the offset potentials of the sintermetallic Ag/AgCl surface elect...

A century has passed since the publication of William James's Principles of Psychology, yet most of the questions James raised about the relation between physiological events and molar psychological or behavioral processes, such as emotion, remain unanswered. The sluggish progress in capitalizing on physiological signals to address general psycholo...

provide an introduction to psychophysiological research on the skeletomotor system / begin by reviewing the history of this research and by articulating some of the major issues, limitations, and advantages of surface electromyography (EMG) / review briefly the physiological basis of the EMG, and we summarize and update the recent guidelines for su...

Despite important advances in and growing applications of psychophysiology, there has existed no single book that covers the diverse elements of psychophysiology at a level of scholarship that is informative to the specialist while also covering these topics at a level of discourse that is accessible to the nonspecialist. A major objective in creat...

define the area of research and theory referred to as psychophysiology, review briefly major historical events in the evolution of psychophysiological inference, outline a taxonomy of logical relationships between psychological constructs and physiological events, and specify a scheme for strong inference within each of the specified classes of psy...

Since the publication of William James's (1890) Principles of Psychology, most of James's questions about the relation between physiological events and molar psychological or behavioral processes remain unanswered. The slow progress in using physiological signals (PSs) to address general psychological questions is due in part to problems in quantif...

The historical beginnings of the scientific discipline of psychophysiology are traced back to the first published English definition by Dr. Samuel Adams, M.D.

A model is outlined to distinguish between the appraisal of signs and symptoms, and between cognitive and social sources of distortion in patients' descriptions of symptoms. The model is also extended to address the problem of calibrating symptom descriptions within and across individuals. Specifically, a formulation is specified to minimize distor...

Despite the burgeoning literature using facial electromyography (EMG) to study cognitive and emotional processes, the psychometric properties of facial EMG measurement have received little attention. Two experiments were conducted to assess the reliability and validity of facial EMG as a measure of specific facial actions. In Experiment 1, two reco...

The moments of a nonnegative bounded waveform (e.g., bounded probability density functions or responses that can be expressed as bounded probability density functions) provide the basis for characterizing the waveform. Traditionally, only the lower-order moments (k ≤ 4) have been utilized in deriving topographical indices of these waveforms. Recent...

Previous research has demonstrated that mild negative emotional imagery and unpleasant sensory stimuli lead to greater electromyographic activity over the brow muscle region than mild positive imagery and stimuli, even in the absence of significant changes in visceral and general facial EMG activity. Previous research has not addressed whether elec...

Residual arousal has been conceptualized as a state of physiological activation that is amenable to misattribution-like processes because individuals are unaware of their aroused physiological state (Zillmann, 1978). Although there is considerable evidence showing that people in the state labeled "residual arousal" rate excitatory stimuli in a more...

Adults hear alternating syllables with isochronous syllable onset-onset times as having a long-short, alternating rhythm when the syllables differ in initial consonant. This occurs because adults attend to syllable-internal events, called the "P centers" or "stress beats", rather than to syllable onsets. Thus they report that stress-beat aligned sp...

Microcomputer systems have become commonplace in the psychophysiological laboratory during the past 5 years and are currently used in all phases of data acquisition, experimental control, and data analysis. In the past year, however, advances in microprocessor technology and scientific software have greatly extended the capabilities of these desk-t...

Examines some potential artifacts of design or execution of studies implying that central pattern masking may prevent awareness of perceptual products. Ss were 84 undergraduates. Three studies examined Ss' judgments of certain properties of masked words. Exps I and II replicated A. Marcel and K. Patterson's (1978) studies in demonstrating better-th...

This paper presents a prototype digital game that integrates team communication and psychophysiological measures as components of play. Our game, PhysiRogue, adds an affective dimension to the location-aware augmented reality game, Rogue Signals. We are using this experimental platform to explore the complementary roles of human-to-human and comput...

Provides an introduction to the contents of this handbook as well as a brief history of psychophysiology and the current state of the field. This chapter aims to define psychophysiology, briefly reviews major historical events in the evolution of psychophysiological inference, outlines a taxonomy of logical relationships between psychological const...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dartmouth College, 1984. Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-165). Photocopy. s