Studying the dynamics of emotional expression using synthesized facial muscle movements.

Synthetic images of facial expression were used to assess whether judges can correctly recognize emotions exclusively on the basis of configurations of facial muscle movements.A first study showed that static, synthetic images modeled after a series of photographs that are widely used in facial expression research yielded recognition rates and confusion patterns comparable to posed photos.In a second study, animated synthetic images were used to examine whether schematic facial expressions consisting entirely of theoretically postulated facial muscle configurations can be correctly recognized.Recognition rates for the synthetic expressions were far above chance, and the confusion patterns were comparable to those obtained with posed photos.In addition, the effect of static versus dynamic presentation of the expressions was studied.Dynamic presentation increased overall recognition accuracy and reduced confusions between unrelated emotions.Many studies have shown that judges are able to recognize facial expressions of specific emotions with a high degree of accuracy (Ekman Russell Ekman, 1994b;Izard, 1994;Russell, 1994).In consequence, our knowledge about the nature of the cues used in facial expression recognition is extremely limited.In this article, we will address four major issues with respect to the pertinent elements and the process of facial expression interpretation: (a) the nature of the facial movement cues used by observers to infer an underlying emotion; (b) the evidence for theoretical predictions concerning emotion-specific patterns of facial movements; (c) the importance of dynamic versus static presentations of facial expression patterns; and (d) the investigation of theoretical assumptions about the temporal unfolding of facial expressions of emotion.The Nature of the Facial Cues Used by Observers to Infer an Underlying Emotion Most researchers in this area hold that the inference of emotion from facial expression is based on emotion-specific patterns or configurations of facial muscle movements.On the basis of earlier