DECODING FACIAL PROTOTYPES IN EXPRESSIVE EMOTIONAL REPERTORIES

This study examined the recognition of the facial prototypes comprised in the expressive emotional repertory proposed by Ekman and Friesen ( 1978a) and by Wiggers (1982). The prototypes were shown to 74 decoders who had to rate the intensity of the emotion or emotions being portra yed. The results indicated that the majority of the prototypes, except those of fear and disgust, clearly signaled the predicted emotion. Th e various prototypes related to the same emotion were found to differ in their signal value, some of them being better recognized and more s pecific than others. Some prototypes of fear and disgust were found to signal mixed rather than pure emotions. The results also revealed tha t the level of recognition of emotional expression varies according to the encoder which suggests that interindividual differences in facial anatomy influence the perception of emotion.