Caricaturing facial expressions

The physical differences between facial expressions (e.g. fear) and a refer ence norm (e.g. a neutral expression) were altered to produce photographic- quality caricatures. In Experiment 1, participants rated caricatures of fea r, happiness and sadness for their intensity of these three emotions; a sec ond group of participants rated how 'face-like' the caricatures appeared. W ith increasing levels of exaggeration the caricatures were rated as more em otionally intense, but less 'face-like'. Experiment 2 demonstrated a simila r relationship between emotional intensity and level of caricature for six different facial expressions. Experiments 3 and 4 compared intensity rating s of facial expression caricatures prepared relative to a selection of refe rence norms - a neutral expression, an average expression, or a different f acial expression (e,g, anger caricatured relative to fear). Each norm produ ced a linear relationship between caricature and rated intensity of emotion ; this finding is inconsistent with two-dimensional models of the perceptua l representation of facial expression, An exemplar-based multidimensional m odel is proposed as an alternative account. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.