Numerous studies have shown that manipulating facial movements affects the recognition of facial expressions (Borgomaneri et al., 2020; Oberman et al., 2007; Niedenthal et al., 2001). In our previous study on the perception of human emotional vocalizations, we found that the pen-in-the-mouth procedure influences valence ratings, introducing a positivity bias that is independent of emotion category but does not influence accuracy of emotion recognition (Wołoszyn et al., 2022). Importantly, in a recent EMG study (Wołoszyn et al., 2024), we observed greater mimicry in response to human vocalizations compared to instrumental sounds expressing emotions. In this study, we aim to test whether restricting facial movements differentially affects the processing of vocal and instrumental expressions, i.e., their recognition and evaluation of valence and arousal. Furthermore, we will check if the null effect on emotion recognition accuracy in our previous study (Wołoszyn et al., 2022) might be linked to the employed response format. Participants were asked, “To what extent did the sound express the following emotion?” and responded on a visual analog scale. However, this differs from studies on facial expressions, in which forced-choice tasks are typically used. Thus, the ineffectiveness of restricting facial movements in our previous study could be linked to more deliberate processing.
Preregistration is available at Open Science Framework
Study status: preparation for data collection
