In previous research, the PI found evidence that emotions mediate early perception. Specifically, emotions appear to increase a person's perceptual sensitivity to emotion-congruent information in the visual world. The past results indicate that emotions have very specific effects on perception such that happy people are particularly efficient at processing information related to happiness (but not all positive events) and that sad people are particularly efficient at processing information related to sadness (but not all negative events). These past findings will now be extended in several ways: In one series of experiments, the emotion-congruence effect will be explored in the domain of face processing. These experiments will examine the hypotheses that (1) emotions increase the efficiency of perception of emotion-congruent faces, and (2) emotions mediate the perception of the boundaries of facial expression categories such that emotional perceivers can detect the offset of emotion-congruent expressions with greater expertise than can other perceivers. Another series of experiments will explore the roles of emotional feelings and of emotional language in perceptual processes. These experiments will investigate the hypothesis that emotional feelings per se mediate emotion congruence effects. The results from this research can provide the basis for a more precise account of the cognitive representation and processing of emotion. %%% In previous research, the PI found that a person's emotional state can influence very basic perceptual and cognitive processes. The past results indicate that happy people do indeed see the world through rose-colored glasses and that sad people see the dark side of life. In addition, the past results suggest that emotions have very specific effects: happy people are especially good at understanding information related to happiness (but not all positive events) and that sad people are especially good at understanding information related to sadness (but not all negative events). These past findings will now be extended in several ways: One series of experiments will examine the effects of emotion on the accuracy and efficiency of interpreting another person's facial expressions. Another set of experiments will examine whether emotional experience itself influences a person's perceptions of others, or whether emotional language is the more important determinant. The results from this research can provide the basis for a more precise and complete understanding of the cognitive representation and processing of emotion.
