Interactions between facial emotion and identity in face processing: evidence based on redundancy gains

Atten Percept Psychophys. 2012 Nov;74(8):1692-711. doi: 10.3758/s13414-012-0345-5.

Abstract

Interactions between the processing of emotion expression and form-based information from faces (facial identity) were investigated using the redundant-target paradigm, in which we specifically tested whether identity and emotional expression are integrated in a superadditive manner (Miller, Cognitive Psychology 14:247-279, 1982). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants performed emotion and face identity judgments on faces with sad or angry emotional expressions. Responses to redundant targets were faster than responses to either single target when a universal emotion was conveyed, and performance violated the predictions from a model assuming independent processing of emotion and face identity. Experiment 4 showed that these effects were not modulated by varying interstimulus and nontarget contingencies, and Experiment 5 demonstrated that the redundancy gains were eliminated when faces were inverted. Taken together, these results suggest that the identification of emotion and facial identity interact in face processing.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Anger
  • Emotions*
  • Face*
  • Facial Expression*
  • Fear
  • Female
  • Happiness
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Reaction Time