Effects of exposure to facial expression variation in face learning and recognition.
Facial expression is a major source of image variation in face images. Linking numerous expressions to the same face can be a huge challenge for face learning and recognition. It remains largely unknown what level of exposure to this image variation is critical for expression-invariant face recognition. We examined this issue in a recognition memory task, where the number of facial expressions of each face being exposed during a training session was manipulated. Faces were either trained with multiple expressions or a single expression, and they were later tested in either the same or different expressions. We found that recognition performance after learning three emotional expressions had no improvement over learning a single emotional expression (Experiments 1 and 2). However, learning three emotional expressions improved recognition compared to learning a single neutral expression (Experiment 3). These findings reveal both the limitation and the benefit of multiple exposures to variations of emotional expression in achieving expression-invariant face recognition. The transfer of expression training to a new type of expression is likely to depend on a relatively extensive level of training and a certain degree of variation across the types of expressions.
Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK. liuc@bournemouth.ac.uk.
Chang Hong
CH
Liu
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Wenfeng
W
Chen
Department of Computer Science, University of Hull, Kingston upon Hull, UK.
James
J
Ward
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult