Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Therapy, School of Health Science, Kyushu University of Health and Welfare
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of shading parts of faces on the intensity ratings offacial expressions of emotion. The participants were 72 undergraduate students whose age ranged from18 to 31 years. The stimulus materials were photographs of faces showing six basic emotions (happiness,sadness, surprise, disgust, anger, fear) and copies of photographs in which the upper or lower parts ofthese faces were shaded. The models in the photographs were 6 Japanese men and 6 Japanese women.The participants\u27 task was to rate intensities for each photograph using a seven-point scale in terms ofthe six basic emotions. Whole face (6.31) and lower parts (6.24) were rated significantly more intense thanthe upper parts (5.11) in happiness photograph. Whole faces (5.67) were rated significantly more intensethan the upper parts (5.10), and the upper parts were rated significantly more intense than the lowerparts (4.51) in sadness photograph. Whole faces (6.19) were rated significantly more intense than theupper parts (5.35) and lower parts (5.26) in surprise photograph. Whole faces (3.85) and the upper parts(3.85) were rated significantly more intense than the lower parts (3.06) in disgust photograph. Whole faces(6.20) were rated significantly more intense than the upper parts (5.79), and the upper parts were ratedsignificantly more intense than the lower parts (3.19) in anger photograph. The differences in ratingintensities were not significant among whole faces (4.03), the upper parts (4.04), and the lower parts (3.74)in fear photograph. The results suggest that: 1) Happiness can be recognized by the lower parts; 2)Sadness, surprise, and anger can be recognized by both the upper and lower parts; 3) Disgust and fearcan’t be recognized even if whole faces were shown
