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Caricaturing facial expressions
Authors:
CALDER, A.J., Rowland, D., Young, A.W., NIMMO-SMITH, I., KEANE, J., Moriaty, J. & Perrett, D.I.
Reference:
Cognition 76(2), 105-146.
Year of publication:
2000
CBU number:
3988
Abstract:
The physical differences between facial expressions (e.g., fear) and a reference norm (e.g., a neutral expression) were altered to produce photographic-quality caricatures. In Experiment 1, participants rated caricatures of fear, happiness and sadness for their intensity of these three emotions; a second group of participants rated how 'face-like' the caricatures appeared. With increasing levels of exaggeration the caricatures were rated as more emotionally intense, but less 'face-like'. Experiment 2 demonstrated a similar relationship between emotional intensity and level of caricature for six different facial expressions. Experiments 3 and 4 compared intensity ratings of facial expression caricatures prepared relative to a selection of reference norms - a neutral expression, an average expression, or a different facial expression (e.g., anger caricatured relative to fear). Each norm produced a linear relationship between caricature and rated intensity of emotion; this finding is inconsistent with two-dimensional models of the perceptual representation of facial expression. An exemplar-based multidimensional model is proposed as an alternative account.