Facial-Expression Affective Attributes and their Configural Correlates: Components and Categories

Abstract

The present study investigates the perception of facial expressions of emotion, and explores the relation between the configural properties of expressions and their subjective attribution. Stimuli were a male and a female series of morphed facial expressions, interpolated between prototypes of seven emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust, and neutral) from Ekman and Friesen (1976). Topographical properties of the stimuli were quantified using the Facial Expression Measurement (FACEM) scheme. Perceived dissimilarities between the emotional expressions were elicited using a sorting procedure and processed with multidimensional scaling. Four dimensions were retained in the reconstructed facial-expression space, with positive and negative expressions opposed along D1, while the other three dimensions were interpreted as affective attributes distinguishing clusters of expressions categorized as "Surprise-Fear," "Anger," and "Disgust." Significant relationships were found between these affective attributes and objective facial measures of the stimuli. The findings support a componential explanatory scheme for expression processing, wherein each component of a facial stimulus conveys an affective value separable from its context, rather than a categorical-gestalt scheme. The findings further suggest that configural information is closely involved in the decoding of affective attributes of facial expressions. Configural measures are also suggested as a common ground for dimensional as well as categorical perception of emotional faces. Keywords: facial expression, emotion, facial configuration, affective dimensionsEste estudio investiga la percepción de las expresiones faciales de la emoción y explora la relación entre las propiedades configurales de las expresiones y su atribución subjetiva. Los estímulos eran una serie de expresiones faciales transformadas por ordenador, interpuestas entre los prototipos de siete emociones (felicidad, tristeza, miedo, ira, sorpresa, asco y neutral) tomados de Ekman y Friesen (1976). Las propiedades topográficas de los estímulos se cuantificaron mediante el esquema Facial Expression Measurement (FACEM). Las disimilaridades percibidas entre las expresiones emocionales se elicitaron mediante un procedimiento de clasificación y se procesaron con escalonamiento multidimensional. Se retuvieron cuatro dimensiones en el espacio facial-expresión reconstruido, con expresiones positivas y negativas contrapuestas a lo largo de D1, y las restantes tres dimensiones se interpretaron como atributos afectivos, distinguiendo clusters de expresiones clasificadas como "Sorpresa/Miedo", "Ira", y "Asco". Se hallaron relaciones significativas entre estos atributos afectivos y las medidas faciales objetivas de los estímulos. Los resultados apoyan un esquema explicativo componencial para el procesamiento de las expresiones, en el que cada componente de un estímulo facial conlleva un valor afectivo separable de su contexto, más que un esquema categórico de tipo Gestalt. Además sugieren ...

Perceptual and affective mechanisms in facial expression recognition: An integrative review

“…Valence and arousal processing have also been assessed by means of affective similarity judgements (Bimler & Paramei, 2006;Gerber et al, 2008;Russell & Bullock, 1985;see Posner, Russell, & Peterson, 2005). Multidimensional scaling (MDS) of the responses has typically produced a similarity structure that is represented as a circumplex model.…”

Anger and Associated Experiences of Sadness, Fear, Valence, Arousal, and Dominance Evoked by Visual Scenes

“…This leads to the inference that Anger is not only a basic emotion, but also a complex one that shares its experience with other emotions depending on the context shown in the stimulus and the subjective attribution (Bimler & Paramei, 2006). Pictures evoking moderate Anger and Sadness were reported with similar experiences of Valence, as did pictures evoking high Anger and high Fear, probably because the three emotions are elicited when confronted with unpleasant stimuli (Mikels, et al, 2005).…”

“…The perception and identification of facial expressions are influenced by subjective attribution (Bimler & Paramei, 2006). This suggests that the information about the context of a stimulus is evaluated for its relevance to multiple concerns for the organism, and human affect is involved in social control through behavioural signals regulating expressions and gestures (Fridja, 1986(Fridja, , 1996.…”

The Identification of Unfolding Facial Expressions

“…Two main theoretical positions can be distinguished. According to categorical models, individual components have no intrinsic meaning, and the information required for accurate emotion identification can be extracted only from the overall configuration (Bimler & Paramei, 2006). Along the same line, some authors made the additional claim (Calder, Young, Perrett, Etcoff, & Rowland, 1996;Campanella, Quinet, Bruyer, Crommelinck, & Guerit, 2002;Etcoff & Magee, 1992) that emotion categorization is a true case of categorical perception.…”

“…Bassili, 1979;Bimler & Paramei, 2006;Calder, Young, Keane, & Dean, 2000;Ellison & Massaro, 1997;Martin, Slessor, Allen, Phillips, & Darling, in press). …”