Coherence between expressive and experiential systems in emotion

Abstract

In order to assess the extent of coherence in emotional response systems, we examined the relationship between facial expression and self-report of emotion at multiple points in time during an affective episode. We showed subjects brief films that were selected for their ability to elicit disgust and fear, and we asked them to report on their emotions using a new reporting procedure. This procedure, called cued-review, allows subjects to rate the degree to which they experienced each of several categories of emotion for many locations over the time interval of a stimulus period. When facial expressions and reports of emotion were analysed for specific moments in film time, there was a high degree of temporal linkage and categorical agreement between facial expression and self-report, as predicted. Coherence was even stronger for more intense emotional events. This is the first evidence of linkage between facial expression and self-report of emotion on a momentary basis.