The Compilation and Validation of a Collection of Emotional Expression Images Communicated by Synthetic and Human Faces

Abstract

The BARTA (Bolton Affect Recognition Tri-Stimulus Approach) is a unique database comprising over 400 colour images of the universally recognised basic emotional expressions and is the first compilation to include three different classes of validated face stimuli; emoticon, computer-generated cartoon and photographs of human faces. The validated tri-stimulus collection (all images received =70% inter-rater (child and adult) consensus) has been developed to promote pioneering research into the differential effects of synthetic emotion representation on atypical emotion perception, processing and recognition in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and, given the recent evidence for an ASD synthetic-face processing advantage (Rosset et al., 2008), provides a means of investigating the benefits associated with the recruitment of synthetic face images in ASD emotion recognition training contexts.