Comparing two versions of the Chimeric Face Test: A pilot investigation

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The Chimeric Face Test (CFT) is a standard measure for assessing lateralization in emotion processing.
• Existing CFT stimuli, like Pictures of Facial Affect, face criticism for limited ethnic diversity and small sample sizes.
• Alternative stimuli, such as the NimStim set, offer greater diversity and a larger stimulus pool.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the degree of lateralization for emotion processing using two different Chimeric Face Test (CFT) stimulus sets: Pictures of Facial Affect (PFA) and NimStim.
• To evaluate the comparability and validity of different CFT versions for measuring emotion processing lateralization.

Main Methods:

• Forty-five participants completed two CFTs: one using PFA stimuli and another using NimStim stimuli.
• Laterality scores (quotients) were calculated for each participant on both tasks.
• Correlation analysis was performed to compare laterality scores between the PFA-CFT and NimStim-CFT.

Main Results:

• A strong positive correlation was found between laterality scores from the PFA-CFT and NimStim-CFT, indicating good inter-measure reliability.
• Participants exhibited a left-visual field bias on both tasks, consistent with a right-hemisphere dominance for emotion processing.
• The NimStim-CFT yielded a more conservative (i.e., potentially smaller) estimate of the degree of lateralization compared to the PFA-CFT.

Conclusions:

• The NimStim Chimeric Face Test is a valid and reliable tool for examining emotion processing lateralization.
• While related, the NimStim CFT provides a more conservative measure of lateralization compared to the PFA.
• Findings support the use of the NimStim set for CFT tasks, addressing limitations of older stimulus sets.