E-motions in the visual arts: exploring the methods

Three experiments are presented, aimed at testing the impact of emotional facial expressions (EFEs) on perceived dynamicity in figurative artworks. Our working hypothesis, tested in a preliminary study (Actis-Grosso & Zavagno, 2013), is that emotional faces portrayed in pictures may convey information about implied motion and therefore may contribute to the impression of dynamicity in static artworks. To clarify some methodological and conceptual aspects, we asked participants (Experiment 1, n=50) to rate the implicit dynamicity inherent to 14 terms indicating different emotions, without any connection to visual stimuli. In experiment 2 a different group of participants (n=60) rated the dynamicity of 42 EFEs showing different emotions at different degrees of intensity, obtained by manipulating 42 artworks. In Experiment 3 another group of participants (n=60) performed a forced-choice procedure, in which they were asked to choose, for each face of Experiment 2, a single emotion as indicated by the 14 terms used in Experiment 1. Results show that the terms used to indicate different emotions are conceptualized in different ways in terms of dynamicity, independently on their visual representation, and that only emotions with an high degree of intensity are positively related with the perceived dynamicity of the corresponding facial expression.