Psychology
2011. Vol.2, No.7, 727-731
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. DOI:10.4236/psych.2011.27111
The Impact of Cognitive Demands on Attention to Facial versus
Situational Cues When Judging Emotions
Joann M. Montepare
RoseMary B. Fuss Center for Research on Aging and Intergenerational Studies, Lasell College,
Newton, Massachusetts, USA.
Email: jmontepare@lasell.edu
Received February 9th, 2011; revised June 7th, 2011; accepted August 24th, 2011.
What information guides how perceivers evaluate people’s emotional experiences? Some regard expressive fa-
cial cues to be the critical source of information whereas others argue that situational cues exert the decisive im-
pact. This research explored an alternative view suggesting that both information sources are of consequence
and that cognitive demands placed on perceivers play a pivotal role in determining what information they use.
To test this view, perceivers were given discrepant combinations of facial and situational information about peo-
ple’s emotional experiences and identified what emotions they felt. Facial information influenced perceivers’
judgments most often when demands were placed on their cognitive resources. In contrast, situational information
had the greatest impact when cognitive demands were minimized. These findings shed light on the debate sur-
rounding the issue of facial v e rsus situational domi na n ce and t h e p rocess by which emotion judgments are made.
Keywords: Emotion Perception, Facial Cues, Cognitive Demand
Introduction
Since the publication of The Expression of the Emotions in
Man and Animals (Darwin, 1872), researchers interested in
nonverbal behavior have debated the nature of emotional ex-
pressions (DePaulo & Friedman, 1998; Knapp & Hall, 2007;
Stanley & Meyer, 2009). One question that has held center
stage is the extent to which expressive facial cues are the criti-
cal source of information in emotion judgments. While some
theorists regard facial information as preeminent, others con-
tend that situational information drives judgments. The present
research considers an alternative position that suggests that both
sources of information play a role in emotion judgments and
that basic cognitive mechanisms guide their relative impact.
Proponents of facial dominance view facial expressions as
evolutionary adaptations that provide direct cues to basic affect-
tive states. Thus, when perceivers observe a person displaying
an emotional expression, it is presumed that facial cues will
dominate perceivers’ judgments and override contradictory
information provided by transient situational information (Buck,
1984; Ekman, 1992; Ekman & Friesen, 1975; Tomkins, 1962-
1963). However, it is acknowledged that from an early age
people learn to conceal, control and manage their facial expres-
sions so that in some situations emotion displays may be weak
or ambiguous and contextual effects emerge (Izard, 1994; Ma-
tsumoto,Yoo, Hirayama, & Petrova, 2005).
Early empirical evidence supporting facial dominance was
provided by a procedure designed by Goodenough and Tinker
(1931) in which perceivers were presented with discrepant
combinations of facial information (pictures of a person’s emo-
tional facial expressions) and situational information (verbal
descriptions of an emotional event a person encounters). When
asked to identify what emotions the person experienced, research
found that perceivers’ judgments were strongly influenced by
expressive facial cues (Ekman, Friesen, & Ellsworth, 1982;
Fernandez-Dols, Sierra, & Ruiz-Belda, 1993; Fernandez-Dols,
Wallbott, & Sanchez, 1991; Nakamura, Buck, & Kenny, 1990).
Several exceptions to the observed advantage of facial in-
formation have challenged the subordinate role of situational
information. For instance, Fernandez-Dols, Wallbott and San-
chez (1991) found that when given an opportunity to categorize
situations with emotion labels used for identifying facial ex-
pressions, perceivers made greater use of situational informa-
tion in a Goodenough-Tinker task. Carroll and Russell (1996)
provided the most theoretically compelling evidence for the
impact of situational information. These researchers agree that
faces evolved to provide socially adaptive information. How-
ever, facial expressions do not signal specific emotional states
but rather reflect general affective dimensions of pleasantness
and arousal. Thus, perceivers must look to situational informa-
tion to determine the specific nature of a person’s emotional
experience. Moreover, situational information is especially
critical to emotion judgments when facial and situational in-
formation vary along shared affective dimensions (see also
Fridlund, 1994; Russell, 1997).
To demonstrate their position, Carroll and Russell (1996)
told perceivers a story describing an emotional event and then
showed them a picture of a person displaying a facial expres-
sion as in the Goodenough-Tinker procedure. The emotions that
were represented shared similar valences with respect to pleas-
antness and arousal yet reflected emotions suggested to be basic
and distinct (e.g., a story about a frightening event was paired
with a picture depicting an angry expression). Perceivers iden-
tified what the person in the picture was feeling and their
judgments coincided more with information provided by situ-
ational rather than facial information. Such findings are diffi-
cult to reconcile with the claim that facial expressions are pre-
eminent in emotion judgments and signal specific emotional
states.1
1Ekman, Friesen and Ellsworth (1982) have suggested several methodology-
cal issues that could account for differences in the relative dominance o
facial versus situational information in the emotion judgments that may be
found when using procedures such as the Goodenough-Tinker (1931) one.
An obvious factor, source clarity, were considered and eliminated as the
basis for Carroll and Russell’s (1996) findings.