Exploring Facial Expression Recognition using Complex Emotional Stimuli

<p dir="ltr">Facial expressions are a powerful tool used to communicate social and emotional signals to an observer. Accurately decoding these signals enables the receiver to understand the situation and respond appropriately. An appropriate behavioural response leads to positive interpersonal communication and social cohesion. However, if a receiver fails to accurately recognise the signal they may respond in an inappropriate manner, which can lead to socially awkward or potentially dangerous interactions.</p><p dir="ltr">Emotion recognition research is critical to understanding the cognitive processes involved in expression recognition as well as the role of facial expressions in social cognition. However, there is a significant lack of empirical research that explores expression recognition beyond the basic emotions – happy, sad, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. Little is known about how humans perceive and recognise complex expressions that are important to more nuanced social interactions. To address these gaps in knowledge, this thesis focused on facial expressions of compound emotions. A compound emotion is a type of complex emotion that is comprised of multiple basic emotions and is signalled using a combination of physical characteristics from each expression.</p>