Recognition of emotions for composite expression faces

K Masame

School of Nursing, Miyagi University, Japan
Contact: masame@myu.ac.jp

By using composite expression faces, namely, smiling faces with neutral eyes or mouth, and neutral faces with smiling eyes or mouth, the interactions between facial parts were examined for recognition of facial expressions of emotion. For these composite expression faces and original faces, three conditions (whole faces, lower halves of faces and upper halves of faces) were prepared. Twenty-five Japanese undergraduates were asked to rate all presented faces for seven emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, surprise and interest, and rank them on a scale of one to six. Two-way ANOVA showed that the main effects of stimulus conditions and expressions and the interactions were all significant to 1%. Multiple comparisons were made for happiness ratings. Results showed we perceive happiness most strongly from whole smiling faces. We can recognize happiness from the upper halves of faces with smiling eyes, or whole smiling faces with neutral mouth. The eyes are sufficient for recognizing happiness, but results showed that smiling eyes in whole, neutral faces appeared disgusted and did not increase recognition of happiness. Interaction is not additive between smiling eyes and neutral whole faces.

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