Abstract

The effects of fearful visual stimuli type and linearity or nonlinearity of audio stimuli was examined using a reaction time test. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions that contained either horror-film-type images or snake images as well as either a linear or nonlinear audio stimulus, and were tasked with determining whether there was a fearful (horror or snake) image present among multiple five image arrays. Descriptively, participants in non-horror visual conditions had faster average reaction times and participants in nonlinear audio conditions also had faster reaction times, however these differences were not found to be significant. Preliminary results suggest that ecological validity and arousal factors may contribute to differences in reaction time, but more research is necessary to confirm.

Advisor

Neuhoff, John

Department

Neuroscience

Disciplines

Cognition and Perception

Publication Date

2020

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2020 Timothy Perales