Asymmetric relationships among perceptions of facial identity, emotion, and facial speech

Effects of variation in an irrelevant stimulus dimension on judgments of faces with respect to a relevant dimension were investigated. Dimensions were identity, emotional expression, and facial speech. The irrelevant dimension was correlated with, constant, or orthogonal to the relevant one. Reaction times (RTs) were predicted to increase over these conditions to the extent that the relevant dimension could not be processed independently of the irrelevant one. RTs for identity judgments were independent of variation in expression or facial speech, but RTs for expression and facial speech judgments were influenced by identity variation. Facial speech perception was affected by identity even when variation in the mouth region was eliminated. Moreover, observers could judge speech faster for personally familiar faces than for unfamiliar faces. The results suggest asymmetric dependencies between different components of face perception. Identity is perceived independently of, but may exert an influence on, expression and facial speech analysis.