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Unveiling the Uncanny Valley: Investigating Reaction Time Dynamics in Human Perception through Changing Exposure Times of Highly Human-like Biological Faces
Overkamp, S. (2025) Unveiling the Uncanny Valley: Investigating Reaction Time Dynamics in Human Perception through Changing Exposure Times of Highly Human-like Biological Faces.
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| Abstract: | The uncanny valley hypothesis proposes a non-linear relationship between a face’s human-likeness and its perceived likeability: as artificial agents become more humanlike, they are generally liked more until a threshold is crossed, after which small deviations from full humanness elicit a drop in likeability. This study examined whether this “valley” emerges under different visual exposure durations and whether reaction time increases when a stimulus lies in an individual’s likeability trough (valley) potentially indicating processing conflict or aversion. Bayesian polynomial regression was used to model the relationship between perceived human-likeness and both likeability and reaction time across exposure times. Results showed a positive association between human-likeness and likeability across all exposure durations, with only weak curvature and no evidence for a clear “valley.” Reaction time models showed stronger non-linearity, with slower responses to moderately humanlike faces, especially at 200ms and 400ms. However, these RT peaks did not align with likeability minima, offering limited support for the idea that RT increases in the uncanny valley. These findings suggest that while likeability may not exhibit a distinct uncanny valley in this context, reaction times may reflect subtle perceptual uncertainty. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106829 |
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