2015
Volume 15, Number 1, pp. 12–14
Recognition of neutral facial expression in the Georgian population: a preliminary report
M. Makashvili, V. Otkhozoria, N. Kaishauri, G. Memanishvili and G. Imerlishvili
Students’ Scientific Research Centre, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Experimental subjects, all Georgians, mean age 22.4 years, were seated in front of a PC monitor. In the first series of experiment, four Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) database stimuli and four photos of Georgian subjects (GEO) expressing neutrality were projected in the centre of the screen one at a time, such that KDEF and GEO images were shown in random order. Participants received a test page for each stimulus containing the words happiness, anger, neutrality, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear. Subjects were asked to look at the stimulus and to circle the one word that best fit the face expression. The percentages of correct responses were 26.25 (in total), 20 (for KDEF) and 32.5 (For GEO). The accuracy of recognition of the KDEF was much lower compared to the KDEF validation data using representatives of Western culture. In the second series of experiments, KDEF and GEO faces were exposed with the eyes hidden by a white film. The percentages of correct responses were 75 (in total), 65 (for KDEF) and 85 (for GEO). The inferences are: (1) Cultural differences affect recognition of neutral facial expression; and (2) Eye expression plays a principal rôle in facial expression recognition by representatives of Georgian culture.
Keywords: face recognition, cross-cultural comparison+ channel