Recognition of dynamic and static facial expressions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare recognition processing of dynamic and static facial expressions evaluated through dimensional and categorical judgments. Facial stimuli were comprised of eight emotions (excitement, happy, calm, surprise, sleepy, fear, anger and sadness) based on dimensional perspectives. Participants evaluated each facial stimuli with three methods, Affect Grid (Russell, Weiss, & Mendelsohn, 1989), forced choice task, and on a seven-point Likert scale. For dynamic expressions, the results from the forced choice task and Likert scale were as follows: slow facial expressions (e. g., sleepy) were more easily identifiable, while unpleasant facial expressions (fear, anger and sadness) were often confused with each other. Results suggest that recognition of facial expressions differs between dynamic and static expressions.