Cite as:
Pollick F E, Hill H, Calder A, Paterson H, 2003, "Recognising facial expression from spatially and temporally modified movements" Perception 32(7) 813 – 826
Download citation data in RIS format

Recognising facial expression from spatially and temporally modified movements

Frank E Pollick, Harold Hill, Andrew Calder, Helena Paterson

Received 7 December 2002, in revised form 19 March 2003; published online 6 June 2003

Abstract. We examined how the recognition of facial emotion was influenced by manipulation of both spatial and temporal properties of 3-D point-light displays of facial motion. We started with the measurement of 3-D position of multiple locations on the face during posed expressions of anger, happiness, sadness, and surprise, and then manipulated the spatial and temporal properties of the measurements to obtain new versions of the movements. In two experiments, we examined recognition of these original and modified facial expressions: in experiment 1, we manipulated the spatial properties of the facial movement, and in experiment 2 we manipulated the temporal properties. The results of experiment 1 showed that exaggeration of facial expressions relative to a fixed neutral expression resulted in enhanced ratings of the intensity of that emotion. The results of experiment 2 showed that changing the duration of an expression had a small effect on ratings of emotional intensity, with a trend for expressions with shorter durations to have lower ratings of intensity. The results are discussed within the context of theories of encoding as related to caricature and emotion.

Restricted material:

 Full-text PDF size: 192 Kb

 References  18 references, 8 with DOI links ()

Your computer (IP address: 107.22.25.119) has not been recognised as being on a network authorised to view the full text or references of this article. If you are a member of a university library that has a subscription to the journal, please contact your serials librarian (subscriptions information).