Work

Effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the duration of expressions on the recognition of microexpressions, which are closely related to deception. METHODS: In two experiments, participants were briefly (from 20 to 300 ms) shown one of six basic expressions and then were asked to identify the expression. RESULTS: The results showed that the participants' performance in recognition of microexpressions increased with the duration of the expressions, reaching a turning point at 200 ms before levelling off. The results also indicated that practice could improve the participants' performance. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the proper upper limit of the duration of microexpressions might be around 1/5 of a second and confirmed that the ability to recognize microexpressions can be enhanced with practice.

Source: Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B

DOI: 10.1631/jzus.b1100063

Authors: Xun-bing Shen, Qi Wu, Xiao-lan Fu

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science

Language: English

Topic: Deception detection and forensic psychology

Subfield: Social Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Central University of Finance and Economics, Jacobs University, National Key Research and Development Program of China

Award: G5349679187