Facial Expression research

We are interested both in the production of facial expressions and in the perception of facial expressions of emotion emitted by others.

To study facial expression production, we use automated facial expression capture technology.  We are interested in how participants’ facial expressiveness relate to challenges within social interaction and the ability to articulate one’s inner emotional experiences.

We use the moving window technique (MWT) to investigate participants’ ability to judge the facial expressions of others, and to determine what areas of the face are most informative for these judgements

Sample publications:

Trevisan, D. A., Hoskyn, M. and Birmingham, E. (2018), Facial expression production in Autism: A Meta‐Analysis. Autism Research, 11: 1586-1601. doi:10.1002/aur.2037

Birmingham, E., Svärd, J., Kanan, C., & Fischer, H. (2018). Exploring emotional expression recognition in aging adults using the Moving Window Technique. PLOS One, 13(10), e0205341, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205341.

Trevisan, D.A., Bowering, M., & Birmingham, E. (2016). Alexithymia, but not autism spectrum disorder, may be related to the production of emotional facial expressions. Molecular Autism, 7:46, doi: 10.1186/s13229-016-0108-6.

Birmingham, E., Meixner, T., Iarocci, G., Kanan, C., Smilek, D., & Tanaka, J. (2013). The Moving Window Technique: a window into developmental changes in attention during facial emotion recognition. Child Development, 84(4): 1407-24, doi: 10.1111/cdev.12039.