Confusion Errors in Emotion Recognition: The Role of Conceptual and Perceptual Factors

The paper presents a study of the relationship between emotional differentiation and the number of perceptual and conceptual confusion errors in emotion recognition by faces. It was assumed that the number of conceptual confusion errors is negatively correlated with emotional differentiation, while the number of perceptual confusion errors is not correlated with emotional differentiation. In order to assess emotional differentiation, a free-card sorting procedure with the subsequent naming of the created categories was used. The card sorting task included four tasks. In each task the participant was asked to group a set of images of faces expressing emotions. The images varied between tasks. In order to assess the number of perceptual and conceptual confusion errors, an emotion recognition task was created. Stimuli were presented sequentially for 800 ms, followed by two emotional labels. The participant was asked to choose which label best describes expressed emotion depicted on the face. During the study, each stimulus was presented five times. Confusion errors were considered when two or three times out of five the participant chose the "correct" label for the expression. This may indicate that the person is unstable in differentiation of the respective emotions. The type of error that the subject can make for each specific trial was determined during preliminary studies. The whole sample included 59 people aged 18 to 49 years (M = 25.2, SD = 5.89). The variable for emotional differentiation was the total number of categories allocated in four tasks for the free-card sorting task. The emotion recognition task variables were the number of trials in which the participant made confusion error. As a result, no significant correlations between the number of errors of both types and emotional differentiation were obtained. However, a significant correlation was found between the number of conceptual and perceptual confusion errors r(59) = .41, p = .001. For some pairs of emotions (e.g., anger and contempt, happiness and pleasure), confusion errors are more common than for others. It is assumed that the unconfirmed hypothesis is a result of the wrong choice of an instrument for assessing emotional differentiation and the ignorance of the integration of emotional experience in the study. Moreover, it is worth considering the possible ambiguity in the interpretation of what is perceptual and what is a conceptual confusion error. In future studies, additional research should be carried out aimed at studying the perceptual and conceptual similarities of emotions for a more accurate assessment of the relationship between the differentiation of emotional experience and confusion errors.