Processing of complex visual scenes: Between semantic and emotion understanding

We have a great ability to recognize complex, everyday visual scenes, even from very short presentations. This ability concerns the general meaning of the scene and the emotional content conveyed. The present review will first analyze previous research on how semantic information and emotional information within a scene are selected and represented, and how they influence the inspection of the scene. It will then examine the interplay between these two kinds of information during processing. This review highlights the importance of the semantic and emotional links between the different components of a scene and the dynamic, integrative nature of visual perception. It also suggests several areas for future research.