The ability to correctly estimate the distance of a face based on its size has been found at a single neuron level in macaque monkeys ( Rolls and Baylis, 1986), and in humans as young as 5 months old ( Yonas et al., 1982). For example, if a familiar object appears smaller than normal a spatial interpretation of the object occurs and it is perceived as being further away ( Gogel and Da Silva, 1987). Furthermore, the size of an object is an important monocular cue to its distance, especially when other distance cues are lacking ( Haber and Levin, 2001), and in that size and distance are in this respect two sides of the same coin ( Noble et al., 2006). The ability to estimate, without effort, the true size of objects irrespective of their retinal size is called size constancy ( Kulikowski and Walsh, 1998 Wagner, 2012). For example, when a known object is presented from a rare angle or at a distance we usually perceive it as the same object even though the retinal image differs from our general representation of that object. When perceiving a familiar object the characteristics of that object are recognized irrespective of the situation in which it is perceived ( Kulikowski and Walsh, 1998). However, research into whether capability to interpret socioemotional information is dependent on the ability to recognize emotional facial expressions, regardless of whether seen from an angle ( Matsumoto and Hwang, 2011 Skowronski et al., 2014) or from a distance ( Du and Martinez, 2011 Guo, 2013), is surprisingly scarce.
We are frequently confronted with facial expressions and many aspects of this type of socioemotional communication have been well documented in previous research, such as the ability to discriminate and categorize facial expressions ( Etcoff and Magee, 1992 Young et al., 1997 Fugate, 2013), the cultural universality or diversity of facial expressions ( Ekman et al., 1987 Jack et al., 2012) and how facial expressions evoke emotions in the perceiver ( Wild et al., 2001). It helps motivate actions and guide behavior. The present study raises considerations regarding constancy of the PI of happy and angry facial expressions at varied distances.Įmotional facial expressions are a vital part of the human non-verbal communicative system. An interaction effect was noted, indicating that close-up faces are perceived as more intense than faces at a distance and that this effect is stronger the more intense the facial expression truly is. The results demonstrated that the perceived intensity (PI) of the emotional facial expression was dependent on the distance of the face and the person perceiving it. Seventy-one (42 females) participants rated the intensity and valence of facial expressions varying in distance and intensity. Using a psychophysical measure (Borg CR100 scale) the present study aimed to further investigate perceptual constancy of happy and angry facial expressions at varied sizes, which is a proxy for varying viewing distances. Previous research has not investigated whether this so called perceptual constancy also applies to the experienced intensity of facial expressions. This is important to how we interpret the quality and the intensity of the expression. In our daily perception of facial expressions, we depend on an ability to generalize across the varied distances at which they may appear. 2Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
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