![]() Individual data points were fitted by Quick functions for each task and each emotion, allowing estimates of absolute thresholds and slopes. Psychometric functions were obtained for 15 healthy young adults using the Method of Constant Stimuli with a two-interval forced-choice procedure. The stimuli were created by morphing photographs of models expressing four basic emotions, anger, disgust, happiness, and sadness with neutral expressions. We report the development of two simple, objective, psychophysical measures of the ability to discriminate facial expressions of emotion that vary in intensity from a neutral facial expression and to discriminate between varying intensities of emotional facial expression. 2Department of Psychology, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia. ![]() 1Department of Psychology, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.In our daily perception of facial expressions, we depend on an ability to generalize across the varied distances at which they may appear.Michelle Marneweck 1*, Andrea Loftus 2 and Geoff Hammond 1 This is important to how we interpret the quality and the intensity of the expression. Previous research has not investigated whether this so called perceptual constancy also applies to the experienced intensity of facial expressions. Using a psychophysical measure (Borg CR100 scale) the present study aimed to further investigate perceptual constancy of happy and angry facial expressions at varied sizes, which is a proxy for varying viewing distances. Seventy-one (42 females) participants rated the intensity and valence of facial expressions varying in distance and intensity. The results demonstrated that the perceived intensity (PI) of the emotional facial expression was dependent on the distance of the face and the person perceiving it. An interaction effect was noted, indicating that close-up faces are perceived as more intense than faces at a distance and that this effect is stronger the more intense the facial expression truly is. The present study raises considerations regarding constancy of the PI of happy and angry facial expressions at varied distances.Įmotional facial expressions are a vital part of the human non-verbal communicative system. It helps motivate actions and guide behavior. We are frequently confronted with facial expressions and many aspects of this type of socioemotional communication have been well documented in previous research, such as the ability to discriminate and categorize facial expressions ( Etcoff and Magee, 1992 Young et al., 1997 Fugate, 2013), the cultural universality or diversity of facial expressions ( Ekman et al., 1987 Jack et al., 2012) and how facial expressions evoke emotions in the perceiver ( Wild et al., 2001). However, research into whether capability to interpret socioemotional information is dependent on the ability to recognize emotional facial expressions, regardless of whether seen from an angle ( Matsumoto and Hwang, 2011 Skowronski et al., 2014) or from a distance ( Du and Martinez, 2011 Guo, 2013), is surprisingly scarce. When perceiving a familiar object the characteristics of that object are recognized irrespective of the situation in which it is perceived ( Kulikowski and Walsh, 1998). For example, when a known object is presented from a rare angle or at a distance we usually perceive it as the same object even though the retinal image differs from our general representation of that object. The ability to estimate, without effort, the true size of objects irrespective of their retinal size is called size constancy ( Kulikowski and Walsh, 1998 Wagner, 2012).
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