Exploring the Use of Isolated Expressions and Film Clips to Evaluate Emotion Recognition by People with Traumatic Brain Injury

Summary

This paper describes how to implement a battery of behavioral tasks to examine emotion recognition of isolated facial and vocal emotion expressions, and a novel task using commercial television and film clips to assess multimodal emotion recognition that includes contextual cues.

Abstract

The current study presented 60 people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 60 controls with isolated facial emotion expressions, isolated vocal emotion expressions, and multimodal (i.e., film clips) stimuli that included contextual cues. All stimuli were presented via computer. Participants were required to indicate how the person in each stimulus was feeling using a forced-choice format. Additionally, for the film clips, participants had to indicate how they felt in response to the stimulus, and the level of intensity with which they experienced that emotion.

Introduction

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects approximately 10 million people each year across the world ¹. Following TBI, the ability to recognize emotion in others using nonverbal cues such as facial and vocal expressions (i.e., tone of voice), and contextual cues, is often significantly compromised ^2-7. Since successful interpersonal interactions and quality relationships are at least partially dependent on accurate interpretation of others' emotions^7-10, it is not surprising that difficulty with emotion recognition has been reported to contribute to the poor social outcomes commonly reported following TBI^3,8,11,12.

Protocol

This protocol was approved by the institutional review boards at Brock University and at Carolinas Rehabilitation.

1. Prior to Testing

1. Create 3 separate lists for the 15 film clips, each listing the clips in a different restricted order.
2. Ensure that each list begins and ends with a neutral stimulus and that no two clips that target the same emotion occur consecutively.
3. Create a separate folder on the desktop for each list of film order presentation and label the folder with the Order name (e.g., Order 1).
4. Save the 15 clips into each of the three folders.
5. Re-label each film clip so....

Results

This task battery was used to compare emotion recognition for isolated emotion expressions (i.e., face-only; voice-only) and combined emotion expressions (i.e., face and voice) that occur within a situational context. A total of 60 (37 males and 23 females) participants with moderate to severe TBI between the ages of 21 and 63 years (mean = 40.98) and 60 (38 males and 22 females) age -matched Controls (range = 18 to 63; mean = 40.64) completed the three tasks. To partici.......

Discussion

The manuscript describes three tasks used to assess emotion recognition abilities of people with TBI. The goal of the described method was to compare response accuracy for facial and vocal emotional cues in isolation, to perception of these cues occurring simultaneously within meaningful situational context. Film clips were included in the current study because their approximation of everyday situations made them more ecologically valid than isolated representations of emotion expressions. When carrying out this protocol.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2	Department of Pychology, Emory University. Atlanta, GA		DANVA-Faces subtest, DANVA-Voices subtest
Computer	Apple iMac Desktop, 27" display
Statistical Analysis Software	SPSS		University Licensed software for data analysis
Happy Film Clip 1	Sweet Home Alabama, D&D Films, 2002, Director: A Tennant		A man surprises his girlfriend by proposing in a jewelry store
Happy Film Clip 2	Wedding Crashers, New Line Cinema, 2005, Director: D. Dobkin		A couple is sitting on the beach and flirting while playing a hand game
Happy Film Clip 3	Reme-mber the Titans, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, 2000, Director: B. Yakin		An African American football coach and his family are accepted by their community when the school team wins the football championship
Sad Film Clip 1	Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 2006, Director: P. Horton		A father is only able to communicate with his family using his eyes.
Sad Film Clip 2	Armageddon, Touchstone Pictures, 1998, Director: M. Bay		A daughter is saying goodbye to her father who is in space on a dangerous mission
Sad Film Clip 3	Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 2006, Director: M. Tinker		A woman is heartbroken her fiance has died
Angry Film Clip 1	Anne of Green Gables, Canadian Broadcast Corporation, 1985, Director: K. Sullivan		An older woman speaks openly about a child's physical appearance in front of her
Angry Film Clip 2	Enough, Columbia Pictures, 2002, Director: M. Apted		A wife confronts her husband about an affair when she smells another woman's perfume on his clothing
Angry Film Clip 3	Pretty Woman, Touchstone Pictures, 1990, Director: G. Marshall		A call girl attempts to purchase clothing in an expensive boutique and is turned away
Fearful Film Clip 1	Blood Diamond, Warner Bros Pictures, 2006, Director: E. Zwick		Numerous vehicles carrying militia approach a man and his son while they are out walking
Fearful Film Clip 2	The Life Before Her Eyes, 2929 Productions, 2007, Directors: V. Perelman		Two teenaged gilrs are talking in the school bathroom when they hear gunshots that continue to get closer
Fearful Film Clip 3	The Sixth Sense, Barry Mendel Productions, 1999, Director: M. N. Shyamalan		A young boy enters the kitchen in the middle of the night and finds his mother behaving very atypically
Neutral Film Clip 1	The Other Sister, Mandeville Films, 1999, Director: G. Marshall		A mother and daughter are discussing an art book while sitting in their living room
Neutral Film Clip 2	The Game, Polygram Filmed Entertainment, 1999, Director: D. Fincher		One gentleman is explaining the rules of a game to another
Neutral Film Clip 3	The Notebook, New Line Cinema, 2004, Director: N. Cassavetes		An older gentleman and his doctor are conversing during a routine check-up