Confusion of fear and surprise: A test of the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis with eye movement monitoring

Abstract

Of the basic emotional facial expressions, fear is typically less accurately recognised as a result of being confused with surprise. According to the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis, the difficulty in recognising fear could be attributed to the similar visual configuration with surprise. In effect, they share more muscle movements than they possess distinctive ones. The main goal of the current study was to test the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis in the recognition of fear and surprise using eye movement recording and by manipulating the distinctiveness between expressions. Results revealed that when the brow lowerer is the only distinctive feature between expressions, accuracy is lower, participants spend more time looking at stimuli and they make more comparisons between expressions than when stimuli include the lip stretcher. These results not only support the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis but extend its definition by suggesting that it is not solely the number of distinctive features that is important but also their qualitative value.

Validating the Radboud faces database from a child’s perspective

“…Goeleven et al, 2008;Langner et al, 2010) might be due to the visual similarities in those two emotions since both involve equal eye-muscle action units: raised eyebrows and upper lids. This explanation has been investigated as the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis, proposing that the confusion of fear and surprise comes forth of a failure to perceive differences between the expressions, and if the cues are perceived, not enough attention is directed towards these facial features (Roy-Charland, Perron, Beaudry, & Eady, 2014). A study that manipulated distinctiveness and attention found support for both components of the hypothesis (Chamberland, Roy-Charland, Perron, & Dickinson, 2017), and the current results fit with this explanation as well.…”

“…Also, children have less experience in enacting emotions, while this experience in the form of mimicry has been shown to facilitate explicit emotion recognition (Conson et al, 2013). The hit rates showing differentiation between positive and negative emotions, but confusions between conceptually similar emotions, are in line with Bullock and Russell's (1984) differentiation account and the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis (Roy-Charland et al, 2014). This implies that when creating stimulus materials for school-aged children, pictures of emotions that are highly similar either conceptually or in how they are physically expressed (e.g.…”

Space-by-time manifold representation of dynamic facial expressions for emotion categorization

“…With this space-by-time manifold decomposition, we address important questions in emotion communication using facial expressions. In particular, we determine which synergistic facial movements communicate emotions, and we isolate the specific movements that cause confusions between specific emotion categories (e.g., fear and surprise; see Ekman, 1992 ; Gagnon, Gosselin, Hudon-ven Der Buhs, Larocque, & Milliard, 2010 ; Jack, Blais, Scheepers, Schyns, & Caldara, 2009 ; Matsumoto & Ekman, 1989 ; Moriguchi et al, 2005 ; Roy-Charland, Perron, Beaudry, & Eady, 2014 ) from those that resolve these confusions. That is, we can identify the low-dimensional space-by-time representation that predicts categorization behavior.…”

Development and validation of Indian Affective Picture Database

“…Fear and surprise can cause confusion in recognition due to similar configuration of the facial muscles, according to the perceptual–attentional limitation hypothesis. Roy‐Charland, Perron, Beaudry, and Eady () found out that accuracy of fear recognition can be lower than that of surprise when distinctive cues are visible only in the eyebrows. Confusion between anger and disgust has been reported in individuals with Huntington's disease (Calder et al, ) and reduced sensitivity in their recognition has been reported in social anxiety disorder (Montagne et al, ).…”