Recognition patterns of dynamic emotional facial expression stimuli

This study examined the emotion recognition patterns as a function of facial expression speed and intensity by using dynamic facial expression stimuli. Ninety-six university students participated in an emotion identification task, viewing computer-presented facial expressions depicting six basic emotions. Each emotion was morphed to vary across four intensity levels (20%, 40%, 60%, and 80%) and four facial expression speeds (250 ms, 500 ms, 750 ms, and 1,000 ms). A repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted to compare the effects of emotion, intensity, and facial expression speed on accuracy, false alarm rate, sensitivity, and response time. Significant two-way and three-way interactions were observed. Simple effects analyses revealed that each emotion demonstrated distinct optimal combinations of intensity and facial expression speed for accurate, sensitive, and fast recognition. Furthermore, recognition was optimized when expression speed matched intensity within each intensity level: low-intensity expressions were better recognized at faster speeds, while high-intensity expressions were better recognized at slower speeds. These findings suggest that emotion recognition varies systematically with specific combinations of facial expression speed and intensity, highlighting the importance of dynamic features in understanding facial emotion perception.