Abstract
In our daily perception of facial expressions, we depend on an ability to generalize across the varied distances at which they may appear. This is important to how we interpret the quality and the intensity of the expression. Previous research has not investigated whether this so called perceptual constancy also applies to the experienced intensity of facial expressions. Using a psychophysical measure (Borg CR100 scale) the present study aimed to further investigate perceptual constancy of happy and angry facial expressions at varied sizes, which is a proxy for varying viewing distances. Seventy-one (42 females) participants rated the intensity and valence of facial expressions varying in distance and intensity. The results demonstrated that the perceived intensity (PI) of the emotional facial expression was dependent on the distance of the face and the person perceiving it. An interaction effect was noted, indicating that close-up faces are perceived as more intense than faces at a distance and that this effect is stronger the more intense the facial expression truly is. The present study raises considerations regarding constancy of the PI of happy and angry facial expressions at varied distances.
Highlights
Emotional facial expressions are a vital part of the human non-verbal communicative system
We are frequently confronted with facial expressions and many aspects of this type of socioemotional communication have been well documented in previous research, such as the ability to discriminate and categorize facial expressions (Etcoff and Magee, 1992; Young et al, 1997; Fugate, 2013), the cultural universality or diversity of facial expressions (Ekman et al, 1987; Jack et al, 2012) and how facial expressions evoke emotions in the perceiver (Wild et al, 2001)
Perceived Valence (PV) was expected to be tightly associated with perceived intensity (PI) as only two expressions were used, for example higher Manipulated Intensity was expected to yield a higher PI and a PV score closer to the happy or angry anchor, respectively
Summary
Emotional facial expressions are a vital part of the human non-verbal communicative system. It helps motivate actions and guide behavior. Research into whether capability to interpret socioemotional information is dependent on the ability to recognize emotional facial expressions, regardless of whether seen from an angle (Matsumoto and Hwang, 2011; Skowronski et al, 2014) or from a distance (Du and Martinez, 2011; Guo, 2013), is surprisingly scarce. The ability to estimate, without effort, the true size of objects irrespective of their retinal size is called size constancy (Kulikowski and Walsh, 1998; Wagner, 2012). The size of an object is an important monocular cue to its distance, especially when other distance cues are lacking (Haber and Levin, 2001), and in that size and distance are in this respect two sides of the same coin
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