Recognition of Emotions as a Function of Display Type, Emotion and Presentation Style

Abstract

In recent situations such as Bosnia and Haiti, the failure of soldiers to interpret cultural expression has led to embarrassing and potentially dangerous situations. The current research represents an evaluation of virtual reality as a display medium for emotion recognition training. The research utilized a 3 × 3 × 6 mixed research design. Forty-eight undergraduates from the University of Houston viewed a human model that presented facial, gestural, and combined (facial and gestural) emotional expressions by means of a helmet-mounted display, monitor, or set of photographs. Participants then described and labeled the expressed emotions. Participants were equally accurate identifying emotions across presentation media, but recognized certain emotions more readily than others across presentation conditions. This research suggests that virtual environments may be effectively used to train cultural display recognition skills.