Categorical Perception - Emotion and Categorical Perception

Emotion and Categorical Perception

Emotions are an important characteristic of the human species. An emotion is an abstract concept that is most easily observed by looking at facial expressions. Emotions and their relation to categorical perception are often studied using facial expressions. Faces contain a large amount of valuable information.

Emotions are divided into categories because they are discrete from one another. Each emotion entails a separate and distinct set of reactions, consequences, and expressions. The feeling and expression of emotions is a natural occurrence, and, it is actually a universal occurrence for some emotions. There are six basic emotions that are considered universal to the human species across age, gender, race, country, and culture and that are considered to be categorically distinct. These six basic emotions are: happiness, disgust, sadness, surprise, anger, and fear. According to the discrete emotions approach, people experience one emotion and not others, rather than a blend. Categorical perception of emotional facial expressions does not require lexical categories. Of these six emotions, happiness is the most easily identified.

The perception of emotions using facial expressions reveals slight gender differences based on the definition and boundaries (essentially, the “edge line” where one emotion ends and a subsequent emotion begins) of the categories. The emotion of anger is perceived easier and quicker when it is displayed by males. However, the same effects are seen in the emotion of happiness when portrayed by women. These effects are essentially observed because the categories of the two emotions (anger and happiness) are more closely associated with other features of these specific genders.

Although a verbal label is provided to emotions, it is not required to categorically perceive them. Before language in infants, they can distinguish emotional responses. The categorical perception of emotions is by a “hardwired mechanism.” Additional evidence exists showing the verbal labels from cultures that may not have a label for a specific emotion but can still categorically perceive it as its own emotion, discrete and isolated from other emotions. The perception of emotions into categories has also been studied using the tracking of eye movements which showed an implicit response with no verbal requirement because the eye movement response required only the movement and no subsequent verbal response.

The categorical perception of emotions is sometimes a result of joint processing. Other factors may be involved in this perception. Emotional expression and invariable features (features that remain relatively consistent) often work together. Race is one of the invariable features that contribute to categorical perception in conjunction with expression. Race can also be considered a social category. Emotional categorical perception can also be seen as a mix of categorical and dimensional perception. Dimensional perception involves visual imagery. Categorical perception occurs even when processing is dimensional.