Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match

Emotion recognition is influenced by contextual information such as social category cues or background scenes. However, past studies yielded mixed findings regarding whether broad valence or specific emotion matches drive context effects and how multiple sources of contextual information may influen...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bryce, L., Mika, G., Craig, B.M., Hess, U., Lipp, Ottmar
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150101540
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/96133
_version_ 1848766098162319360
author Bryce, L.
Mika, G.
Craig, B.M.
Hess, U.
Lipp, Ottmar
author_facet Bryce, L.
Mika, G.
Craig, B.M.
Hess, U.
Lipp, Ottmar
author_sort Bryce, L.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Emotion recognition is influenced by contextual information such as social category cues or background scenes. However, past studies yielded mixed findings regarding whether broad valence or specific emotion matches drive context effects and how multiple sources of contextual information may influence emotion recognition. To address these questions, participants were asked to categorize expressions on male and female faces posing happiness and anger and happiness and fear on pleasant and fearful backgrounds (Experiment 1, conducted in 2019), fearful and disgusted expressions on fear and disgust eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 2, conducted in 2022), and fearful and sad expressions on fear and sadness eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 3, conducted in 2022). In Experiment 1 (where stimuli varied in valence), a broad valence match effect was observed. Faster recognition of happiness than fear and anger was more pronounced in pleasant compared to fearful scenes. In Experiments 2 and 3 (where stimuli were negative in valence), specific emotion match effects were observed. Faster recognition occurred when expression and background were emotionally congruent. In Experiments 1 and 3, poser sex independently moderated emotional expression recognition speed. These results suggest that the effect of emotional scenes on facial emotion recognition is mediated by a match in valence when broad valence is task-relevant. Specific emotion matches drive context effects when participants categorize expressions of a single valence. Looking at the influence of background contexts and poser sex together suggests that these two sources of contextual information have an independent rather than an interactive influence on emotional expression recognition speed.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T11:45:44Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-96133
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
language eng
last_indexed 2025-11-14T11:45:44Z
publishDate 2024
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-961332024-11-07T01:27:00Z Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match Bryce, L. Mika, G. Craig, B.M. Hess, U. Lipp, Ottmar Humans Male Female Emotions Young Adult Facial Expression Facial Recognition Adult Social Perception Recognition, Psychology Fear Humans Facial Expression Emotions Fear Social Perception Adult Female Male Young Adult Facial Recognition Recognition, Psychology Emotion recognition is influenced by contextual information such as social category cues or background scenes. However, past studies yielded mixed findings regarding whether broad valence or specific emotion matches drive context effects and how multiple sources of contextual information may influence emotion recognition. To address these questions, participants were asked to categorize expressions on male and female faces posing happiness and anger and happiness and fear on pleasant and fearful backgrounds (Experiment 1, conducted in 2019), fearful and disgusted expressions on fear and disgust eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 2, conducted in 2022), and fearful and sad expressions on fear and sadness eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 3, conducted in 2022). In Experiment 1 (where stimuli varied in valence), a broad valence match effect was observed. Faster recognition of happiness than fear and anger was more pronounced in pleasant compared to fearful scenes. In Experiments 2 and 3 (where stimuli were negative in valence), specific emotion match effects were observed. Faster recognition occurred when expression and background were emotionally congruent. In Experiments 1 and 3, poser sex independently moderated emotional expression recognition speed. These results suggest that the effect of emotional scenes on facial emotion recognition is mediated by a match in valence when broad valence is task-relevant. Specific emotion matches drive context effects when participants categorize expressions of a single valence. Looking at the influence of background contexts and poser sex together suggests that these two sources of contextual information have an independent rather than an interactive influence on emotional expression recognition speed. 2024 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/96133 10.1037/emo0001359 eng http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150101540 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 fulltext
spellingShingle Humans
Male
Female
Emotions
Young Adult
Facial Expression
Facial Recognition
Adult
Social Perception
Recognition, Psychology
Fear
Humans
Facial Expression
Emotions
Fear
Social Perception
Adult
Female
Male
Young Adult
Facial Recognition
Recognition, Psychology
Bryce, L.
Mika, G.
Craig, B.M.
Hess, U.
Lipp, Ottmar
Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match
title Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match
title_full Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match
title_fullStr Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match
title_full_unstemmed Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match
title_short Emotional Scenes as Context in Emotional Expression Recognition: The Role of Emotion or Valence Match
title_sort emotional scenes as context in emotional expression recognition: the role of emotion or valence match
topic Humans
Male
Female
Emotions
Young Adult
Facial Expression
Facial Recognition
Adult
Social Perception
Recognition, Psychology
Fear
Humans
Facial Expression
Emotions
Fear
Social Perception
Adult
Female
Male
Young Adult
Facial Recognition
Recognition, Psychology
url http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150101540
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/96133