INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN THE ABILITY TO DECODE EMOTIONAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

This study proposed that in oi der to demonstrate individual differenc es in the ability to decode emotional facial expressions, decoding tas ks must be challenging. Sixty-nine participants completed an extravers ion-introversion measure and a field-dependence-independence measure. Then, they indicated the emotion expressed in each of 72 faces. To var y task difficulty, 24 slides showed only rite eyes, 24 slides showed o nly the mouth, and 24 slides showed the full face. Field-independent p articipants were better at interpreting the facial expressions than fi eld-dependent participants, but only when the tasks were difficult. In contrast, extraverts and introverts did not differ significantly in d ecoding accuracy.