title: Emotional context influences micro-expression recognition.
abstract: Micro-expressions are often embedded in a flow of expressions including both neutral and other facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether the types of facial expressions appearing before and after the micro-expression, i.e., the emotional context, influence micro-expression recognition. To address this question, the present study used a modified METT (Micro-Expression Training Tool) paradigm that required participants to recognize the target micro-expressions presented briefly between two identical emotional faces. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that negative context impaired the recognition of micro-expressions regardless of the duration of the target micro-expression. Stimulus-difference between the context and target micro-expression was accounted for in Experiment 3. Results showed that a context effect on micro-expression recognition persists even when the stimulus similarity between the context and target micro-expressions was controlled. Therefore, our results not only provided evidence for the context effect on micro-expression recognition but also suggested that the context effect might result from both the stimulus and valence differences.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qiufang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Hsin
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaolan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult
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