Holistic processing is dominant for happy expression but supplementary for surprise one: Evidence from the composite face paradigm T Kirita1, K Matsuhashi |
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1Iwate Prefectural University, Japan
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| The composite face effect (CFE) has been taken as an index of holistic processing of facial identity. The CFE has also been demonstrated in the categorization tasks of facial expressions, suggesting that facial expressions should be processed holistically to some extent [Calder et al, 2000, Journal of Experimental Psychology: HPP, 26(2), 527-531]. However it is still unknown to what extent the CFE would be observed for each facial expression. In this study, we addressed this problem. In the Experiment, reaction times were measured in categorizing four facial expressions by combining positive (happy or surprise) top halves with negative (angry or sad) bottom halves and vice versa. Note that we adopted non-toothy happy and angry expressions. The results showed that when the targets were top halves, whereas strong CFE was observed for happy expression, composite faces had little effect, if any, on categorizing surprise expression. For both angry and sad expressions, moderate CFE was found. When the targets were bottom halves, the CFE was observed for all facial expressions to the same degree. These results suggest that the degree of holistic processing should be different among facial expressions: holistic processing might be dominant for happy expression but supplementary for surprise one. |
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