Studying the dynamics of emotional expression using synthesized facial muscle movements

Synthetic images of facial expression were used to assess whether judges ca n correctly recognize emotions exclusively on the basis of configurations o f facial muscle movements. A first study showed that static, synthetic imag es modeled after a series of photographs that are widely used in facial exp ression research yielded recognition rates and confusion patterns comparabl e to posed photos. In a second study, animated synthetic images were used t o examine whether schematic facial expressions consisting entirely of theor etically postulated facial muscle configurations can be correctly recognize d. Recognition rates for the synthetic expressions were far above chance, a nd the confusion patterns were comparable to those obtained with posed phot os. In addition, the effect of static versus dynamic presentation of the ex pressions was studied. Dynamic presentation increased overall recognition a ccuracy and reduced confusions between unrelated emotions.