Title
Recognition of Emotion from Inverted Schematic Drawings of Faces
Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
Psychology
Publication Date
2-1-2003
Abstract
The present study investigated whether facial expressions of emotion are recognized holistically, i.e., all at once as an entire unit, as faces are or featurally as other nonface stimuli. Evidence for holistic processing of faces comes from a reliable decrement in recognition performance when faces are presented inverted rather than upright. If emotion is recognized holistically, then recognition of facial expressions of emotion should be impaired by inversion. To test this, participants were shown schematic drawings of faces showing one of six emotions (surprise, sadness, anger, happiness, disgust, and fear) in either an upright or inverted orientation and were asked to indicate the emotion depicted. Participants were more accurate in the upright than in the inverted orientation, providing evidence in support of holistic recognition of facial emotion. Because recognition of facial expressions of emotion is important in social relationships, this research may have implications for treatment of some social disorders.
Recommended Citation
Fallshore, M., & Bartholow, J. (2003). Recognition of Emotion from Inverted Schematic Drawings of Faces. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96(1), 236–244. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2003.96.1.236
Journal
Perceptual and Motor Skills
Rights
Copyright © 2003 SAGE Publications
Comments
This article was originally published in Perceptual and Motor Skills. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.
Due to copyright restrictions, this article is not available for free download from ScholarWorks @ CWU.