¿Facilita la sorpresa la detección de la expresión facial de miedo?

Lilia Mestas Hernández; Fernando Gordillo León

doi:10.24310/escpsi.18.2.2025.21896

Authors

Lilia Mestas Hernández Facultad de Estudios Superiores Zaragoza (FESZ). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Mexico
Fernando Gordillo León Universidad de Salamanca Spain https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9628-3989

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24310/escpsi.18.2.2025.21896

Keywords:

Emoción, Expresiones faciales, Ira, Miedo, Paradigma de Posner, Sorpresa

Abstract

Facial expressions of surprise and fear share perceptual similarities that may influence their functionality in emotional detection processes. However, previous literature has reported inconsistent findings, possibly due to variations in temporal factors such as stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). The present study aimed to examine the role of the surprise expression in the detection of threatening expressions (fear and anger) by manipulating different SOAs (50 ms, 100 ms, 150 ms, 200 ms). A modified spatial cueing task was employed, in which a surprised or neutral facial expression served as the orienting cue, followed by a target expression of fear or anger. The results showed that surprise expressions facilitated the detection of fear (relative to anger) when the cue appeared on the right side of the screen and the SOA was 50 ms. These findings contribute to the debate on the relationship between surprise and fear in emotional detection processes. Nevertheless, the modulatory role of temporal intervals in this relationship remains unclear and warrants further investigation using experimental designs that are more sensitive to subtle but theoretically relevant effects.

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