Visual discrimination of facial expression of emotion

A habituation paradigm was employed to examine the theoretical nature of facial processing. Three specific issues were addressed. It may be possible to infer the double dissociation and relative salience of facial identity versus facial expressions of emotion (FEE\u2019s). A habituation paradigm may also be used to examine three hypotheses regarding the nature of FEE processing; it may be configural (Etcoff & Magee, 1992), featural (Yamada, Matsuda, Watari & Suenaga, 1993), or a combination of both, depending upon the particular FEE (Kirita & Endo, 1995; McKelvie, 1994). Third, the role of priming in FEE processing was examined. Skin conductance responses (SCR\u2019s) were recorded while subjects (N=107) watched video tapes of four actors performing FEE\u2019s. Changes in identity and expression were manipulated independently. Increases in SCR were reliable indicators of habituation to stimulus repetition. Results showed that changes in both identity and FEE produced magnitudes of response recovery that were significantly different from zero, demonstrating stimulus specificity. Results indicated no significant differences between their respective magnitudes; both changes appeared to be equally salient to subjects. When the magnitudes of response recovery to changes in FEE\u2019s were examined alone, results did not produce strong evidence in favour of any of the hypotheses of FEE processing. However, there is evidence to suggest that priming may play a role in response recovery and habituation to FEE\u2019s. This study showed that the use of a habituation paradigm has utility in the study of facial processing, although more research is required.