Acoustic name+positive trait pair cueing during slow-wave sleep increases the perceived attractiveness of the cued person's mental facial representation¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Attractiveness ratings of mental face representations for cued names were significantly higher than for uncued names after sleep cueing (B = 0.18). → Zhao 2025

Evidence¶

Zhao 2025¶

Zhao, H., Lin, X., Yuan, K., Hu, X., Wang, X., Su, W., Wang, Q., & Lu, L. (2025). Updating social evaluation during sleep. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00356-9

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Controlled nap experiment: mental facial representations obtained via reverse correlation image classification and rated for attractiveness by 60 independent online raters. The linear mixed-effects model showed "the main effect of the condition was significant" (F(1, 8984) = 107.07, p < 0.001) with cued faces rated higher (B = 0.18). No standardized effect size was printed for this finding.

"the Linear Mixed Model (LMM) revealed that the main effect of the condition was significant (F(1, 8984) = 107.07, p < 0.001), and the attractiveness ratings of the faces associated with the cued names were significantly higher than those associated with the uncued names (B = 0.18, SE = 0.02, z = 10.348, p < 0.001)"

Zhao 2025 (2)¶

Zhao, H., Lin, X., Yuan, K., Hu, X., Wang, X., Su, W., Wang, Q., & Lu, L. (2025). Updating social evaluation during sleep. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00356-9

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Control analysis in the Wang Fang face comparison found "no significant difference in ratings between the uncued name face and the face with only name exposure" (B = 0.02, padjusted = 0.774), so mere name exposure alone did not improve mental representations.

"T h e r ew a sn o significant difference in ratings betweent h eu n c u e dn a m ef a c ea n dt h ef a c e with only name exposure ( B =0 . 0 2 ,SE = 0.07, z = 0.29, padjusted=0 . 7 7 4 )"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Mere acoustic name exposure during sleep without positive traits does not enhance mental facial representations of the named person — related
• Sleep cueing with name+positive trait pairs biases trait memory toward more positive and less negative memories of the cued person — related
• Sleep cueing with name+positive trait pairs improves explicit attitudes: likeability, social willingness, and trust choices favor the cued person — related
• Sleep cueing with name+positive trait pairs improves implicit attitudes (IAT D-scores) toward the cued person — related
• The number of slow oscillations during sleep is positively correlated with attractiveness ratings of faces associated with cued names but not uncued names — related