Contextualising facial expressions: The effect of temporal context and individual differences on classification

The influence of context on facial expression classification is most often investigated using simple cues in static faces portraying basic expressions with a fixed emotional intensity. We examined (1) whether a perceptually rich, dynamic audiovisual context, presented in the form of movie clips (to achieve closer resemblance to real life), affected the subsequent classification of dynamic basic (happy) and non-basic (sarcastic) facial expressions and (2) whether people’s susceptibility to contextual cues was related to their ability to classify facial expressions viewed in isolation. Participants classified facial expressions—gradually progressing from neutral to happy/sarcastic in increasing intensity—that followed movie clips. Classification was relatively more accurate and faster when the preceding context predicted the upcoming expression, compared with when the context did not. Speeded classifications suggested that predictive contexts reduced the emotional intensity required to be accurately classified. More importantly, we show for the first time that participants’ accuracy in classifying expressions without an informative context correlated with the magnitude of the contextual effects experienced by them—poor classifiers of isolated expressions were more susceptible to a predictive context. Our findings support the emerging view that contextual cues and individual differences must be considered when explaining mechanisms underlying facial expression classification.