The Role of Expression in the Recognition of a Face

The 80 subjects were tested for their accuracy and confidence of recognition of photographs or their negatives from the Lightfoot series a single female face in various expressions. A week later, they twice rated the same stimuli on Schlosberg's three dimensions of facial expression. The expressions were recognized with less confidence and less accuracy in negative than in positive, were rated differently in negative than positive, and tended to show the greatest discrepancies in ratings when least accurately and least confidently recognized. Facial expression is apparently a parameter of facial recognition.