Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal
Facial expressions provide insight into a person’s emotional experience. To automatically decode these expressions has been made possible by tremendous progress in the field of computer vision. Researchers are now able to decode emotional facial expressions with impressive accuracy in standardized i...
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doaj-debaf12962ad43329946cab3c080b1dc2020-11-25T03:15:31ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782020-06-011110.3389/fpsyg.2020.01388521353Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and ArousalT. Tim A. Höfling0Antje B. M. Gerdes1Ulrich Föhl2Georg W. Alpers3Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, GermanyBusiness Unit, Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, Pforzheim, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, GermanyFacial expressions provide insight into a person’s emotional experience. To automatically decode these expressions has been made possible by tremendous progress in the field of computer vision. Researchers are now able to decode emotional facial expressions with impressive accuracy in standardized images of prototypical basic emotions. We tested the sensitivity of a well-established automatic facial coding software program to detect spontaneous emotional reactions in individuals responding to emotional pictures. We compared automatically generated scores for valence and arousal of the Facereader (FR; Noldus Information Technology) with the current psychophysiological gold standard of measuring emotional valence (Facial Electromyography, EMG) and arousal (Skin Conductance, SC). We recorded physiological and behavioral measurements of 43 healthy participants while they looked at pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral scenes. When viewing pleasant pictures, FR Valence and EMG were both comparably sensitive. However, for unpleasant pictures, FR Valence showed an expected negative shift, but the signal differentiated not well between responses to neutral and unpleasant stimuli, that were distinguishable with EMG. Furthermore, FR Arousal values had a stronger correlation with self-reported valence than with arousal while SC was sensitive and specifically associated with self-reported arousal. This is the first study to systematically compare FR measurement of spontaneous emotional reactions to standardized emotional images with established psychophysiological measurement tools. This novel technology has yet to make strides to surpass the sensitivity of established psychophysiological measures. However, it provides a promising new measurement technique for non-contact assessment of emotional responses.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01388/fullautomatic facial codingfacial electromyographyskin conductanceemotionfacial expression |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
T. Tim A. Höfling Antje B. M. Gerdes Ulrich Föhl Georg W. Alpers |
spellingShingle |
T. Tim A. Höfling Antje B. M. Gerdes Ulrich Föhl Georg W. Alpers Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal Frontiers in Psychology automatic facial coding facial electromyography skin conductance emotion facial expression |
author_facet |
T. Tim A. Höfling Antje B. M. Gerdes Ulrich Föhl Georg W. Alpers |
author_sort |
T. Tim A. Höfling |
title |
Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal |
title_short |
Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal |
title_full |
Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal |
title_fullStr |
Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal |
title_full_unstemmed |
Read My Face: Automatic Facial Coding Versus Psychophysiological Indicators of Emotional Valence and Arousal |
title_sort |
read my face: automatic facial coding versus psychophysiological indicators of emotional valence and arousal |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Psychology |
issn |
1664-1078 |
publishDate |
2020-06-01 |
description |
Facial expressions provide insight into a person’s emotional experience. To automatically decode these expressions has been made possible by tremendous progress in the field of computer vision. Researchers are now able to decode emotional facial expressions with impressive accuracy in standardized images of prototypical basic emotions. We tested the sensitivity of a well-established automatic facial coding software program to detect spontaneous emotional reactions in individuals responding to emotional pictures. We compared automatically generated scores for valence and arousal of the Facereader (FR; Noldus Information Technology) with the current psychophysiological gold standard of measuring emotional valence (Facial Electromyography, EMG) and arousal (Skin Conductance, SC). We recorded physiological and behavioral measurements of 43 healthy participants while they looked at pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral scenes. When viewing pleasant pictures, FR Valence and EMG were both comparably sensitive. However, for unpleasant pictures, FR Valence showed an expected negative shift, but the signal differentiated not well between responses to neutral and unpleasant stimuli, that were distinguishable with EMG. Furthermore, FR Arousal values had a stronger correlation with self-reported valence than with arousal while SC was sensitive and specifically associated with self-reported arousal. This is the first study to systematically compare FR measurement of spontaneous emotional reactions to standardized emotional images with established psychophysiological measurement tools. This novel technology has yet to make strides to surpass the sensitivity of established psychophysiological measures. However, it provides a promising new measurement technique for non-contact assessment of emotional responses. |
topic |
automatic facial coding facial electromyography skin conductance emotion facial expression |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01388/full |
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