FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND SPEECHREADING PERFORMANCE

In the present study, the role of facial expressions in visual speechr eading (lipreading) was examined. Speechreading was assessed by three different tests: sentence-based speechreading, word-decoding, and word discrimination. Twenty-seven individuals participated as subjects in the study. The results revealed that no general improvement as a funct ion of expression was obtained across all tests. Nevertheless, skilled speechreaders could significantly improve their performance as a Func tion of emotional expression in the word-decoding and word-discriminat ion conditions. Furthermore, a correlational analysis indicated that t here was a significant relationship between the subjects' rating of co nfidence regarding their responses to each test-item and performance o n speechreading tests where lexical analysis is a necessary task-deman d. The results are discussed with respect to how information from faci al expressions is integrated with the information given by the lip mov ements in visual speechreading, and also with respect to general model s of face-processing (i.e., Bruce & Young, 1986; Young & Bruce, 1991).