Effect of the changes in facial expression and/or identity of the model on a face discrimination task

The present study examined the cognitive evaluation of facial expressions. The amounts of time taken by 32 participants (from the general population) to find the different face in a set of photos where 31 faces were the same and only one was different, were analysed. The variations of the faces were due to identity and/or facial expressions (happiness, anger, neutral or combinations of these). The results showed that the happiness expression was detected the fastest and that the processing of this expression was made in a gestaltic way. They also showed that the recognition of the facial identity and the recognition of the expression were carried out by independent ways of processing.