Emotion Perception Time Analysis for Variable Facial Expression

Abstract

In the present research we aim to study the process of emotion perception from facial expression through appraisal variable, to analyse Perception Response Time (PRT) for group decision with stimuli from different communities, and to analyse PRT with respect to valence of the emotion stimuli. To achieve the goals, we have designed an experiment to collect Emotion Perception Response. In this experiment, human subjects perceived emotion from facial expression display. Activation Evaluation (AE) Space is used to map subjective score. Stimuli images were from 3 data sets (JAFFA, CK, INPE) with different cultural background. Perception of emotion is estimated through Kernel Density Estimation (KDE). PRT is recorded during perception task. Young Indians (N = 70) participated in the Emotion Perception Task (EPT). The response time distribution analysis is done with median and variance with box plot. The response time is studied for all basic emotions for three data sets. The maximum and average response provides the information about the possible perceptual differences with respect to (a) valence and (b) cultural background of the displayed image. PRT is observed as consistently low and culturally invariant for positive emotions for all data sets. The perceptual response time indicates some emotions like 'Happy' are perceived faster than other emotions with higher accuracy. This is also observed to be independent of cultural background. The study can aid to understand cultural-invariant aspects of emotion perception from facial expression. Further, generalization is possible with subjects from a wider cultural background.