Romina Palermo
Biographic Data
| ID | 5710419 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Romina Palermo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Romina |
| FAMILY NAME | Palermo |
| SIGNATURE | PALERMO R |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Western Australia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8678-4592 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Eye believe you
64) replicated the increased believability of sadness with downcast gaze but showed decreased believability with sideways aversion. Overall, our results highlight the theoretical importance of alignment between the signalled meaning of co-occurring facial cues in driving perceptions of believability and provide practical guidance on how gaze can optimise the believability of CG facial expressions
Interactions between faces and visual context in emotion perception
Long-standing theories in emotion perception, such as basic emotion theory, argue that we primarily perceive others’ emotions through facial expressions. However, compelling evidence shows that other visual contexts, such as body posture or scenes, significantly influence the emotions perceived from faces and vice versa. We used meta-analysis to synthesise and quantify these effects for the first time, testing if faces have primacy over context a…
General figure and face-specific closure ability
Little research has examined the association between general figure closure speed, a stratum I ability within the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence, and face-specific closure ability; an important consideration, as some research suggests face processing is independent of other abilities. Additionally, figure closure ability (general and face) may correlate negatively with trait-autism, due to theorised autism-related difficulties i…
People Attribute a Range of Highly-Varied and Socially-Bound Meanings to Naturalistic Sad Facial Expressions
Depictions of sadness are commonplace, and here we aimed to discover and catalogue the complex and nuanced ways that people interpret sad facial expressions. We used a rigorous qualitative methodology to build a thematic framework from 3,243 open-ended responses from 41 people who participated in 2020 and described what they thought sad expressors in 80 images were thinking, feeling, and/or intending to do. Face images were sourced from a novel s…
Face recognition's practical relevance
Research on individual differences in face recognition has provided important foundational insights: their broad range, cognitive specificity, strong heritability, and resilience to change. Elusive, however, has been the key issue of practical relevance: do these individual differences correlate with aspects of life that go beyond the recognition of faces, per se? Though often assumed, especially in social realms, such correlates remain largely t…
Autistic traits are associated with differences in the perception of genuineness and approachability in emotional facial expressions, independently of alexithymia
People with autism and higher levels of autistic traits often have difficulty interpreting facial emotion. Research has commonly investigated the association between autistic traits and expression labeling ability. Here, we investigated the association between two relatively understudied abilities, namely, judging whether expressions reflect genuine emotion, and using expressions to make social approach judgements, in a nonclinical sample of unde…
Children’s dynamic use of face- and behavior-based cues in an economic trust game
Who do children trust? We investigated the extent to which children use face-based versus behavior-based cues when deciding whom to trust in a multiturn economic trust game. Children's ( N = 42; aged 8 to 10 years; 31 females; predominantly White) trust decisions were informed by an interaction between face-based and behavior-based cues to trustworthiness, similarly to those of adults ( N = 41; aged 17 to 48 years; 23 females; predominantly White…
Associations between hypomania proneness and attentional bias to happy, but not angry or fearful, faces in emerging adults
Mania, the core feature of bipolar disorder, is associated with heightened and positive emotion responding. Yet, little is known about the underlying cognitive processes that may contribute to heightened positive emotionality observed. Additionally, while previous research has investigated positive emotion biases in non-clinical samples, few if any, account for subthreshold clinical symptoms or traits, which have reliably assessed psychopathologi…
Can People Accurately Estimate the Calories in Food Images? An Optimised Set of Low- and High- Calorie Images from the food-pics database
The British Journal of Psychology in 2019 and beyond
Current developments and challenges for the British Journal of Psychology
Social and attention‐to‐detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability
This study distinguished between different subclusters of autistic traits in the general population and examined the relationships between these subclusters, looking at the eyes of faces, and the ability to recognize facial identity. Using the Autism Spectrum Quotient ( AQ ) measure in a university‐recruited sample, we separate the social aspects of autistic traits (i.e., those related to communication and social interaction; AQ ‐Social) from the…
The Function of Moods and Emotions
Evolutionary theories suggest that all affective states have a function. The fascinating review “Can Sadness Be Good for You? On the Cognitive, Motivational and Interpersonal Benefits of Mild Negative Affect” by Joseph Forgas is a welcome reminder that happiness is not the be all and end all—sadness can also be beneficial. In this commentary, I summarise the studies conducted by Forgas et al. that demonstrate the benefit of mild negative affect f…
Not just fear and sadness
Judging approachability on the face of it
The aim of the current study was to examine how emotional expressions displayed by the face and body influence the decision to approach or avoid another individual. In Experiment 1, we examined approachability judgments provided to faces and bodies presented in isolation that were displaying angry, happy, and neutral expressions. Results revealed that angry expressions were associated with the most negative approachability ratings, for both faces…
Can People Accurately Estimate the Calories in Food Images? An Optimised Set of Low- and High- Calorie Images from the food-pics database
The Function of Moods and Emotions
Evolutionary theories suggest that all affective states have a function. The fascinating review “Can Sadness Be Good for You? On the Cognitive, Motivational and Interpersonal Benefits of Mild Negative Affect” by Joseph Forgas is a welcome reminder that happiness is not the be all and end all—sadness can also be beneficial. In this commentary, I summarise the studies conducted by Forgas et al. that demonstrate the benefit of mild negative affect f…
Judging approachability on the face of it
The aim of the current study was to examine how emotional expressions displayed by the face and body influence the decision to approach or avoid another individual. In Experiment 1, we examined approachability judgments provided to faces and bodies presented in isolation that were displaying angry, happy, and neutral expressions. Results revealed that angry expressions were associated with the most negative approachability ratings, for both faces…
Not just fear and sadness
The Function of Moods and Emotions
Evolutionary theories suggest that all affective states have a function. The fascinating review “Can Sadness Be Good for You? On the Cognitive, Motivational and Interpersonal Benefits of Mild Negative Affect” by Joseph Forgas is a welcome reminder that happiness is not the be all and end all—sadness can also be beneficial. In this commentary, I summarise the studies conducted by Forgas et al. that demonstrate the benefit of mild negative affect f…
Social and attention‐to‐detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability
This study distinguished between different subclusters of autistic traits in the general population and examined the relationships between these subclusters, looking at the eyes of faces, and the ability to recognize facial identity. Using the Autism Spectrum Quotient ( AQ ) measure in a university‐recruited sample, we separate the social aspects of autistic traits (i.e., those related to communication and social interaction; AQ ‐Social) from the…
Current developments and challenges for the British Journal of Psychology
Can People Accurately Estimate the Calories in Food Images? An Optimised Set of Low- and High- Calorie Images from the food-pics database
The British Journal of Psychology in 2019 and beyond
Associations between hypomania proneness and attentional bias to happy, but not angry or fearful, faces in emerging adults
Mania, the core feature of bipolar disorder, is associated with heightened and positive emotion responding. Yet, little is known about the underlying cognitive processes that may contribute to heightened positive emotionality observed. Additionally, while previous research has investigated positive emotion biases in non-clinical samples, few if any, account for subthreshold clinical symptoms or traits, which have reliably assessed psychopathologi…
Children’s dynamic use of face- and behavior-based cues in an economic trust game
Who do children trust? We investigated the extent to which children use face-based versus behavior-based cues when deciding whom to trust in a multiturn economic trust game. Children's ( N = 42; aged 8 to 10 years; 31 females; predominantly White) trust decisions were informed by an interaction between face-based and behavior-based cues to trustworthiness, similarly to those of adults ( N = 41; aged 17 to 48 years; 23 females; predominantly White…
General figure and face-specific closure ability
Little research has examined the association between general figure closure speed, a stratum I ability within the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence, and face-specific closure ability; an important consideration, as some research suggests face processing is independent of other abilities. Additionally, figure closure ability (general and face) may correlate negatively with trait-autism, due to theorised autism-related difficulties i…
People Attribute a Range of Highly-Varied and Socially-Bound Meanings to Naturalistic Sad Facial Expressions
Depictions of sadness are commonplace, and here we aimed to discover and catalogue the complex and nuanced ways that people interpret sad facial expressions. We used a rigorous qualitative methodology to build a thematic framework from 3,243 open-ended responses from 41 people who participated in 2020 and described what they thought sad expressors in 80 images were thinking, feeling, and/or intending to do. Face images were sourced from a novel s…
Face recognition's practical relevance
Research on individual differences in face recognition has provided important foundational insights: their broad range, cognitive specificity, strong heritability, and resilience to change. Elusive, however, has been the key issue of practical relevance: do these individual differences correlate with aspects of life that go beyond the recognition of faces, per se? Though often assumed, especially in social realms, such correlates remain largely t…
Autistic traits are associated with differences in the perception of genuineness and approachability in emotional facial expressions, independently of alexithymia
People with autism and higher levels of autistic traits often have difficulty interpreting facial emotion. Research has commonly investigated the association between autistic traits and expression labeling ability. Here, we investigated the association between two relatively understudied abilities, namely, judging whether expressions reflect genuine emotion, and using expressions to make social approach judgements, in a nonclinical sample of unde…
Interactions between faces and visual context in emotion perception
Long-standing theories in emotion perception, such as basic emotion theory, argue that we primarily perceive others’ emotions through facial expressions. However, compelling evidence shows that other visual contexts, such as body posture or scenes, significantly influence the emotions perceived from faces and vice versa. We used meta-analysis to synthesise and quantify these effects for the first time, testing if faces have primacy over context a…
Eye believe you
64) replicated the increased believability of sadness with downcast gaze but showed decreased believability with sideways aversion. Overall, our results highlight the theoretical importance of alignment between the signalled meaning of co-occurring facial cues in driving perceptions of believability and provide practical guidance on how gaze can optimise the believability of CG facial expressions
Psychology (13 works) · Cognitive psychology (9 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Face Recognition and Perception (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Facial expression (5 works) · Perception (5 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (5 works) · Anger (4 works)