AUTHOR=Chen Wenfeng , Lander Karen , Liu Chang Hong TITLE=Matching Faces with Emotional Expressions JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=2 YEAR=2011 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00206 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00206 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

There is some evidence that faces with a happy expression are recognized better than faces with other expressions. However, little is known about whether this happy-face advantage also applies to perceptual face matching, and whether similar differences exist among other expressions. Using a sequential matching paradigm, we systematically compared the effects of seven basic facial expressions on identity recognition. Identity matching was quickest when a pair of faces had an identical happy/sad/neutral expression, poorer when they had a fearful/surprise/angry expression, and poorest when they had a disgust expression. Faces with a happy/sad/fear/surprise expression were matched faster than those with an anger/disgust expression when the second face in a pair had a neutral expression. These results demonstrate that effects of facial expression on identity recognition are not limited to happy-faces when a learned face is immediately tested. The results suggest different influences of expression in perceptual matching and long-term recognition memory.