Atypical Minds: the Cognitive Science of Difference and Potentialities
Cognitio 2015
Young researchers conference in cognitive science
Montréal, June 8th, 9th and 10th 2015
The effects of context on facial emotion recognition
Joanna Pineda, Daina Crafa & Mathieu Brodeur.
INTRODUCTION
Social context influences our ability to recognize facial emotions. For example, a smile could appear happy or ironic depending on the context. Similarly, a furrowed brow may seem unfriendly or confused. Although such context effects are generally known, few studies have specifically investigated how context modulates facial emotion recognition. For example, does context modulate whether a facial expression is interpreted as positive or negative? Does context alter how intensely we perceive the viewed emotion or how quickly we ascribe valence? To investigate these questions, emotion recognition was evaluated for faces presented in and out of context through two experiments. We hypothesized that faces in context would be interpreted more positively than faces without context, and seem more intense and recognizable to participants.
METHODS
Experiment 1: The first experiment evaluated whether facial emotion expressions would be classified as positive or negative as a function of their surrounding context. Thirty-two gender-matched participants (mean age=23.2) completed this experiment. Participants viewed 500 images presented in one of two conditions: faces were either presented alone with a white background or they appeared in a visual scene context. Each image was presented for the same length of time in both blocks. Immediately after an image was shown, participants were instructed to categorize which emotion is represented utilizing a given list of 26 basic emotions (13 positive, 13 negative).
Experiment 2: The second experiment evaluated whether the intensity of the emotional valence varied for facial emotion expressions as a function of their context, and whether participant reacted faster to facial emotion expressions in or out of context. Forty-nine gender-matched participants (mean age=23.2) viewed 500 images. Prior to the experiment all facial emotion expressions were classified as either positive or negative. Each image appeared four times at randomized times with a different word appearing under the image. The words were congruent with the image type, so positive images only had positive words, and negative images only had negative words. Participants rate how well the word fit the expression in the image with a scale of 1-5, and their reaction times were also recorded.
RESULTS
Experiment 1 revealed that facial emotion expressions were perceived as being more positive when faces were presented in context and more negative when faces were presented alone. Experiment 2 showed that emotions appeared to be more intense when presented in context and less intense when presented alone. Reaction times were faster when faces were presented alone.
DISCUSSION
Our results from the two experiments show that context modulates and intensifies the apparent valence of facial emotions. While certain expressions may seem less sociable at first glance, these findings suggest that context makes them both more understandable and more salient. Faster reaction times when faces were presented alone could suggest that facial expressions are easier to judge in isolation; however, it is also possible that participants simply needed more time to look at the image when faces were presented in context. Future studies should further consider these differences in viewing time.