Facial expressions of emotions: a methodological contribution to the study of spontaneous and dynamic emotional faces

Abstract

This paper addresses methodological considerations relevant to nonverbal communication of emotion research. In order to gather more information about the interpretations given to spontaneous and dynamic facial expressions, two main objectives guide the present exploratory research. The first one is to obtain naturalistic recordings of emotional expressions in realistic settings that are 'emotional enough'. The second one is to address the issue of dynamic judgments of facial expressions of emotion, that is real-time emotional recognition. An innovative device has been created for this specific purpose. Results show that, although the social nature of the eliciting situation is minimal, the experience of some emotions is reflected on the encoders' faces while being covertly videotaped in natural conditions. Moreover, results show the utility to investigate dynamic emotional judgments of spontaneous and dynamic expressions since observers seem to be sensitive to the slightest facial expression change in making their emotional judgments. A promising paradigm is thus proposed for the study of the dynamics of real-time nonverbal emotional interaction.

Modeling continuous self-report measures of perceived emotion using generalized additive mixed models.

“…tapraid5/met-met/met-met/met00413/met2255d13z xppws Sϭ1 10/9/13 6:27 Art: 2012-0105 APA NLM (e.g., Ambadar, Schooler, & Cohn, 2005;Biele & Grabowska, 2006;Edwards, 1998;Kamachi et al, 2001;Naab & Russell, 2007;Sneddon et al, 2011;Tcherkassof et al, 2007). In this article, we suggest that generalized additive models and generalized additive mixed models provide a solution to this particular problem in emotion perception research.…”

“…There is now considerable evidence that our perception of facial expressions of emotion is influenced by the presence or absence of dynamic information (Tcherkassof, Bollon, Dubois, Pansu, & Adam, 2007). Researchers have used a range of methods to compare dynamic and static images that has included dynamically morphing a sequence of still images (Kamachi et al, 2001), animating synthetic images (Wehrle, Kaiser, Schmidt, & Scherer, 2000), and presenting film of spontaneous responses to emotional slides (Wagner, MacDonald, & Manstead, 1986).…”

Effects of Dynamic Aspects of Facial Expressions: A Review

“…By providing unique information about the direction, quality and speed of motion, dynamic stimuli enhance coherence in the identification of affect, lead to stronger emotion judgments, and facilitate the differentiation between posed and spontaneous expressions (for a review see Krumhuber, Kappas, & Manstead, 2013). In the last two decades, this advantage -paired with the stimuli's greater realism and ecological validity -has led to increased questioning and criticism regarding the use of static images (e.g., Tcherkassof, Bollon, Dubois, Pansu, & Adam, 2007; Wehrle, Kaiser, Schmidt, & Scherer, 2000), with a gradual shift in interest towards dynamic expressions.…”

“…By providing unique information about the direction, quality and speed of motion, dynamic stimuli enhance coherence in the identification of affect, lead to stronger emotion judgments, and facilitate the differentiation between posed and spontaneous expressions (for a review see Krumhuber, Kappas, & Manstead, 2013). In the last two decades, this advantage -paired with the stimuli's greater realism and ecological validity -has led to increased questioning and criticism regarding the use of static images (e.g., Tcherkassof, Bollon, Dubois, Pansu, & Adam, 2007; Wehrle, Kaiser, Schmidt, & Scherer, 2000), with a gradual shift in interest towards dynamic expressions.The trend is reflected in the literature with exponential increases of relevant entries over the past thirty-five years. For example, a Google Scholar search for the word "dynamic face" and related phrases i returned a mere 13 articles in 1980-1989 and 87 articles in 1990-1999. format of recordings, (e) visual or audio-visual modality of stimuli, (f) real human encoders, and (g) individual portrayals (as opposed to emotive interactions; note that some might contain both types).…”

Dynemo : A Video Database of Natural Facial Expressions of Emotions

“…Secondly, spontaneously occurring behavior differs in various aspects from deliberate behavior, including timing, visual appearance [23,24]. In particular, some spontaneous facial configurations can hardly be performed deliberately [25].…”