The Effects Of Information Type (Configuration Vs. Features) And Region (Eyes Vs. Mouth) In Facial Expressions Perception

Face recognition is an important social skill in the process of socialization,such as social activity,interpersonal communication.The most widely classification in face recognition is configural and featural processing.Many researchers have studied the two kinds of processing using a series of extensive and in-depth researches.Configural processing have three types: the first-order relations that define faces(i.e.two eyes above a nose and mouth),holistic processing(gluing the features together into a gestalt),and second-order relations(i.e.the spacing among features).Emotion recognition is an important part of face recognition.A lot of studies investigated the role of first-order relations and holistic information when processing facial expression.A lot less is known about the influences of second-order relations and featural information on emotion recognition.We investigated this issue by using experimental method.In the present study,the modified Face Dimensions Task is used to examine the face inversion effect on regional differences in the processing of featural and configural face information.In present study,we conducted two studies to examine this issue.The goal of the Study 1 was to test the effects of inversion on the discrimination of configural differences in the eye and mouth regions of three facial expressions.Results showed that the effects of second-order relations processing on three facial expressions is the same,in which discrimination in the eye region were larger than that in the mouth region,regardless of what kind of facial expressions.Inversion significantly decreased the discrimination of configural differences.Study 2 examined the effects of inversion on the discrimination of featural differences in the eye and mouth regions of three facial expressions.Results showed that,the effects of featural processing on three facial expressions were different,in which discrimination of angry faces was larger than that of happy faces and neutral faces,and this effect on the eye region was inconsistent with the mouth region.Inversion disrupted the differences of featural differences in the eye region among three kinds of facial expression,but not in the mouth region.The current study found that the configural processing and featural processing played different roles in facial expression perception.Different facial expressions were equally affected by the processing of second-order relations,whereas featural processing differentially influenced happy,neutral and angry faces.Featural processing differentially influenced happy,neutral and angry faces.Individuals showed different sensitivity to upright facial expression processed with both featural information and second-order relations that varied in eyes region or mouth region.Face inversion effects impaired the discrimination of changes to configural changes and featural changes.Furthermore,this impairment was moderated by type of facial expression and region.