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Prototypicality and Intensity of Emotional Faces using an Anchor-Point Method

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2013

Álvaro Sánchez  and
Carmelo Vázquez
Álvaro Sánchez
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
Carmelo Vázquez*
Affiliation:
Universidad Complutense (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Carmelo Vázquez. Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas. Madrid (Spain). 28223. Phone:+34-913943131. FAX: +34-913943189. E-mail: cvazquez@psi.ucm.es
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Abstract

Emotional faces are commonly used as stimuli in a wide number of research fields. The present study provides values of 198 pictures from one of the amplest available face databases, the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF). We used a new validation strategy that consisted of presenting pairs of faces which included an emotional face (i.e., angry, happy, sad) and its corresponding neutral face from the same model. This design allowed participants to keep a comparison face (i.e., neutral) as a constant anchor point to evaluate parameters on each emotional expression presented. Raters were asked to judge both the prototypicality of the emotional expressions (i.e., the degree to which they represent their corresponding emotional prototypes) as well as their emotional intensity. We finally discuss the potential advantages of this anchor-point method as a system to elicit judgments on facial emotional expressions.

Keywords

emotionsfacial expressionsemotional contentvalidationprototype
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 16 , 2013 , E7
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2013 

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Footnotes

This research was, in part, supported by grants PSI2008-02889-E and PSI2009-13922 to second author. We thank Luis Aguado, Gonzalo Hervás and Carmen Valiente for their collaboration and support in different stages of the study.

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