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Abstract:
Recent experiments suggest that facial identity affects the
perception of facial expressions, but face recognition may be
independent of the expression displayed (Schweinberger &
Soukup, 1998; JEP: HPP, 24: (6) 1748-1765, Schweinberger, Burton
& Kelly, 1999; Perception and Psychophysics, 61: (6),
1102-1115). The present study extended the earlier ones by using
familiar faces. Happy or angry versions of 8 famous and 8
unfamiliar faces were either morphed from a famous to an unfamiliar
face within a given emotional expression, or were morphed from a
happy to an angry expression within a given identity. In an emotion
classification task (Experiment 1), pictures of both happy and
angry expressions were classified faster for familiar than
unfamiliar faces (Experiment 1). In a face familiarity task
(Experiment 2), RTs for classifications of unfamiliar faces were
independent of facial expression. However, there was an influence
of expression on the recognition of famous faces: The fastest RTs
were seen for neutral to moderately happy morphs, whereas RTs were
slower for both angry and very happy expressions. In further
experiments we showed no Garner-type interference effects on
emotion classification of trial-by-trial variations across famous
and unfamiliar faces, relative to trial-by-trial variations within
one familiarity class. The results are discussed with reference to
the hypothesis that facial identity and expression are perceived by
modular and independent brain systems.
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