Perception of facial expressions of emotion under brief exposure duration

Abstract

The Set of 9 facial stimuli that were constructed in accordance with a two-dimensional perspective of emotions, pleasantness and degree of activation, were used. Preliminary study (n=122) collected the rating data about emotional meanings of these expressions. Results were roughly consistent with the previous findings. In the main experiment, Japanese participants (n=52) observed a briefly presented photograph of facial expressions ranging from 4ms to 64ms in its duration. Results showed that relative to the neutral face, the facial expressions of emotion could be perceived more easily in the brief exposure duration. Especially, expressions depicting highly activated emotions such as surprise and excitement were perceived more easily than faces expressing moderately or low activated emotions. These findings were also confirmed in the dual scaling analysis. Confusions among expressions (e. g., perceiving the fear as the surprise) occurred among adjacent expressions in a two-dimensional space of emotion.