LOOKING FOR HAPPINESS: AN INVESTIGATION THROUGH EYE MOVEMENTS

Two main processes can be considered as fundamental in the decoding of emotions through facial expression: a perceptual analysis and a cortical elaboration of the meaning conveyed by a specific pattern of traits (Adolphs, 2002). We hypothesized these two components to contribute diversely in implicit vs. explicit judgments and we investigated pattern of eye movements. Subjects (n17) were asked to press a key for a target emotion (e.g. happiness) and another key to discard distracters (e.g., sadness, anger, fear). The task was articulated in four blocks (total of 128 trials) so that each emotion was tested in both conditions. Eye movement patterns were measured with an infrared pupil-centred corneal-reflection eye tracker (ASL 504). For all emotion except happiness the time spent fixating internal features (eyes and mouth) was higher in explicit judgements. Happiness showed a reversed pattern, with more time spent looking at the internal features in the implicit condition. We can speculate that negative emotions are easier to discard because they are processed preferentially by subcortical routes.