Fig. 2

Behavioral results. a Emotional assessment scores of the angry (ANG), neutral (NT), and happy (HAP) faces by a ten-point Likert scale were compared by nonparametric tests. All pairs yielded significant differences. b Emotional distances (infrequent minus frequent) were directly compared between the ANG and HAP faces. The HAP faces were perceived to be more remote from the NT faces than the ANG faces. c Response times (RTs) for targets appearing immediately after infrequent stimuli were compared between the ANG and HAP faces. Responses to targets appearing after the HAP faces were relatively slower than those for targets appearing after the ANG faces and demonstrated an interference effect. Error bars in the graphs a–c represent standard deviations. d RTs were correlated with emotional distances for the ANG and HAP faces. RTs for the ANG faces significantly correlated with emotional distances (r = 0.516), while RTs for the HAP faces did not (r = 0.146)