Adaptive face coding contributes to individual differences in facial expression recognition independently of affective factors.

Abstract

There are large, reliable individual differences in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion across the general population. The sources of this variation are not yet known. We investigated the contribution of a key face perception mechanism, adaptive coding, which calibrates perception to optimize discrimination within the current perceptual "diet." We expected that a facial expression system that readily recalibrates might boost sensitivity to variation among facial expressions, thereby enhancing recognition ability. We measured adaptive coding strength with an established facial expression aftereffect task and measured facial expression recognition ability with 3 tasks optimized for the assessment of individual differences. As expected, expression recognition ability was positively associated with the strength of facial expression aftereffects. We also asked whether individual variation in affective factors might contribute to expression recognition ability, given that clinical levels of such traits have previously been linked to ability. Expression recognition ability was negatively associated with self-reported anxiety but not with depression, mood, or degree of autism-like or empathetic traits. Finally, we showed that the perceptual factor of adaptive coding contributes to variation in expression recognition ability independently of affective factors. (PsycINFO Database Record

Adaptation to dynamic faces produces face identity aftereffects

“…In particular, our finding that moving faces can produce adaptation effects is critical for the proposal that adaptation plays a functional role in face perception. Adaptation is argued to calibrate face norms, optimizing our ability to discriminate between faces (e.g., Dennett et al, 2012;Palermo et al, 2017;Rhodes et al, (2010). Support for this argument comes indirectly from studies showing that face adaptation effects are reduced in clinical groups who experience face recognition difficulties, such as individuals with prosopagnosia (Palermo et al, 2011), children with autism and their relatives (Ewing, Leach, Pellicano, Jeffery, & Rhodes, 2013;Fiorentini, Gray, Rhodes, Jeffery, & Pellicano, 2012;Pellicano, Jeffery, Burr, & Rhodes, 2007;Pellicano, Rhodes, & Calder, 2013;Pimperton, Pellicano, Jeffery, & Rhodes, 2009) and patients whose early vision in infancy was compromised by congenital bilateral cataracts (Rhodes, Nishimura, de Heering, Jeffery, & Maurer, 2017).…”

“…Support for this argument comes indirectly from studies showing that face adaptation effects are reduced in clinical groups who experience face recognition difficulties, such as individuals with prosopagnosia (Palermo et al, 2011), children with autism and their relatives (Ewing, Leach, Pellicano, Jeffery, & Rhodes, 2013;Fiorentini, Gray, Rhodes, Jeffery, & Pellicano, 2012;Pellicano, Jeffery, Burr, & Rhodes, 2007;Pellicano, Rhodes, & Calder, 2013;Pimperton, Pellicano, Jeffery, & Rhodes, 2009) and patients whose early vision in infancy was compromised by congenital bilateral cataracts (Rhodes, Nishimura, de Heering, Jeffery, & Maurer, 2017). Individual variation in face recognition ability in typical individuals is also positively associated with the strength of face adaptation effects (Dennett et al, 2012;Palermo et al, 2017;. The emerging picture from these studies is that attenuated, or sluggish, adaptation might lead to poorly calibrated face norms, which in turn results in poorer ability to discriminate and remember faces.…”

“…accumulating that adaptation itself plays a functional role in our face perception abilities (Dennett, McKone, Edwards, & Susilo, 2012;Palermo et al, 2017;Palermo, Rivolta, Wilson, & Jeffery, 2011;Rhodes, 2017;Rhodes, Ewing, Jeffery, Avard, & Taylor, 2014;Rhodes, Jeffery, Taylor, Hayward, & Ewing, 2014;Rhodes, Watson, Jeffery, & Clifford, 2010).…”

Different aspects of facial affect recognition impairment following traumatic brain injury: The role of perceptual and interpretative abilities

“…Affect labeling and affect matching tasks were adapted from Palermo and colleagues (Palermo, et al, 2017; Palermo, et al, 2013) (See figure 1). The matching task (Matching) is an odd-expression-out task, in which participants saw three faces displaying an emotional expression.…”

“…We employed an affect-matching task and an affect-labeling task recently developed by Palermo and colleagues (Palermo et al, 2017; Palermo, et al, 2013). The tasks have demonstrated validity and reliability for assessment of individual differences within healthy populations, and thus do not suffer from ceiling effects; and they were chosen due to their sensitivity to inter-individual variability, and thus their ability to detect even slight differences in affect recognition performance (Palermo, et al, 2013).…”