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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Componental Issue

Whether face can provide accurate information about

emotion has been the central issue in the facial expression
research since a long day. Although either a judgement or
a component approach can be employed in experiments on
accuracy, almost all of the researches have used a 'judge­
ment' design. Darwin (1872) used one variety of this
method. The component method involves the description of
the facially expressed emotion, the importance of different
facial parts in different emotions and the study of muscles
involved in making those expression. It has been often
observed that in judgement design, the observers name the
facial expression represented in photographs of the whole
facesj consequently the face, here, is usually considered
to be the independent variable or stimulus. The study
of such type lack the possibility of demonstrating the role
that different facial areas play in contributing accurate
emotional judgements. On the other hand, the judgements
from components of facial behaviour demonstrate which
componental facial parts best represent the different
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emotions and also which particular area/s are more respon­

sible for expressing an emotion.

The components! approach has had its introduction

in Bell’s (1806) notions, as he pointed out the value of
anatomy for the painter and the special importance of
knowing the facial muscles which produce the different
expressions. Another early investigator Piderit (1859),
found a lack of harmonious facial expression in many of
his paintings, which stimulated him to analyse the total
expression of the face into elementary expressions of the
several features in the belief that combining such elements
would produce a harmonious total (Woodworth & Schlosberg,
1951). Subsequently, other investigators have used this
approach to demonstrate whether specific components of
facial expression are differentially important in communi­
cating emotional states. In the following few paragraphs,
only those works will be reviewed which are based on corapo-
nental design, as it is within the scope of the present
thesis.

The early studies on componental issues have been

attempted considering different methodologies. Landis &
Hunt (1939) detected, strength of specific facial response
varies directly with intensity and suddenness of stimulus.
Both Thompson (1941) and Fulcher (1942) by comparing blind
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with sighted children revealed seeing subjects showed more

facial activity and uniformity of pattern. Leventhal &

Sharp (1965) studied with facial features of women in pre­

childbirth labour, reported, forehead, brow, eyelid indices

exhibited more discomfort and distress signs as labour

progressed. Trujillo & Warthin (1988) relating signs of

frowning in ulcer patients showed they have more vertical

furrows in their brow-forehead than control patients.

Rubenstein (1969) found more displacement of facial muscles

during smile following shock treatment, than before in

depressive patients. Ekman, Friesen and Malmstrom (1970)

observed that the subjects showed more surprise, sadness,

disgust, anger in stress inducing film than neutral film,

which produced more happiness, as measured by FAST system.

Ekman, Friesen cc Tomkins' (1971) Facial Affect Scoring

Technique (FAST) is a general purpose tool for measuring

the occurrence of a number of different emotions and it

directly measures facial components. FAST requires scoring

of each observable movement in each of three areas of the

face (brows/forehead; eye s/lids *, lower face including cheeks,

nose, mouth, chin).

Schwartz (1974), Schwartz et al (1975) made use of

EMG measurements of facial activity to obtain a form of

'invisible' component analysis. Recently Ekman & Friesen's

(1978) Facial Action Coding System (FACS), based on facial

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anatomy, was designed to measure all visible facial

behaviour in any context. All these studies on components
of facial behaviour suggest that accurate information
about some aspect of a person's experience can be obtained
from measures of facial components. Moreover, in these
studies the facial behaviour is considered to be a depen­
dent variable and relate facial measurements to some
accuracy criterion. The research on facial components can
also be designed to determine what facial components
provide the observer with emotional information. The studies
of this concept relate facial components to the observers'
interpretation of stimulus person's face. Such componental
studies attempt to determine the relation between various
facial components and judgement of emotion.

In most of the studies relating components to

observer's judgements, "the investigators did not directly
measure facial components but, instead, limited the area
of the face which the observer could see. Inferences about
the importance of facial components within particular areas
were made by comparing judgements made from one facial area
with judgements made from another." (Ekman, Friesen &
Ellsworth (1972). In such type of studies it is determined
whether a specific emotion or even all emotions might be
better judged from one facial area than from another, which
components of facial areas contribute most to the under-
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standing of different emotions. In the following, studies

with this concept are attempted to review.

Ruckmick (1921) performed the first study in which

observers saw either the top or bottom half of the face

and observed the Judgement of the bottom half of the face

were more similar to the judgements of the full face, than

were judgements of the top half. Boring and Titchlher (1923)
A
built up 360 compounds with a collection of brows, eyes,

noses and mouths, and found that almost every compound was

accepted by some observers as a genuine expression, even

when the parts were contradictory. Dunlap (1927) by

sampling facial behaviour in laboratory situations similar

to those used by Landis (1924) reported similar findings

to that of Ruekmiek (1921). Frois-Wittmann (1930) showed

the top of the face to one group of observers and the mouth

area, excluding the nose and cheeks to another, and then

comparing judgements of the whole face with those of the

top or mouth, concluded that there was "no consistent

dominance of either eyes or mouth in the determination of

the judged expressions of the face." Hanawalt (1944)

compared observers' judgements of emotion from top, bottom,

or whole face versions and obtained that the bottom of the

face was better judged than from the top on happiness, while

the top was better judged on surprise, anger and fear.

Coleman (1949) utilizing motion picture film of facial

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responses compared judgements of the top and bottom half

of the face but found no reliable differences between facial

regions. Recent psychophysical investigations have begun

searching for facial regions that are used in making emotion

judgements. Plutchik C1962) provided evidence that the

importance of facial area dependend upon the particular

emotion judged, for e.g., mouth was most important for happi­

ness, anger and disgust*, the eyes for fear and sadness;

eyes, mouth and forehead for surprise. Nummenmaa (1964)

provided the same result, with the information that eye

region as the primary centre of attention. Ekman, Friesen

& Tomkins (1971) presented a report on Facial Affect Scoring

Technique (FAST), and concluded that different facial areas

should be differentially weighted for judging any particular

emotion. Boucher and Ekman (1975) reported an evaluation

of their hypothesis that facial areas are differentially

involved in emotional expression, in which subject raters

were asked to identify the emotion in each of the three

partial facial areas (brows/forehead, eye/eyelids, and

cheeks/mouth) giving an intensity value for each. The result

suggested that fear and sadness was best judged from the

eyes/eyelids area, happiness was seen both in eye/eyelids

with cheeks/mouth and surprise was predictable from all of

the three facial areas. Janik et al. (1978) found the eye

region as the most popular area and the centre of focus in

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the visual examination of human faces. Bassili (1979)

demonstrated the relative effectiveness of upper and lower
facial areas for the recognition of the different emotions
using normally illuminated and spots-only displays, and in
both Instances the results Indicated that different facial
regions are more informative for different emotions.

From the above available studies it may be observed

that such studies provide strong support for the differen­
tial importance of facial areas in the expression of emotion.
Another issue which needs special mention is the utiliza­
tion of a similar componentalizing (the face) procedure
that includes the top area (including eyes, eyelids) and
the bottom area (including mouth, cheeks) excepting a few
studies where three or four divisions have been made.
Incidentally, the procedures adopted uptil have all incor­
porated a horizontal division of the face; a possible
variation of the method is a symmetrical vertical division
of the face which may add to enrich the aspects of the study.
Few investigators are there In this line, who have studied
only with vertical division of the face.

Sackeim and Gur (1978) demonstrating the intensity

of emotional expression of leftside, right side, and origi­
nal orientation composite human faces, found left side
composites were judged to be more emotionally intense than
right side composites. Leehey et al. (1978) studied with