Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T14:12:03.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Measuring Responses to Nonverbal Social Signals: Research on Affect Receiving Ability

from Part I - Conceptual Models of Social Signals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Ross Buck
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
Mike Miller
Affiliation:
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Stacie Renfro Powers
Affiliation:
Philliber Research Associates
Judee K. Burgoon
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann
Affiliation:
Université de Genève
Maja Pantic
Affiliation:
Imperial College London
Alessandro Vinciarelli
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access

Summary

Facial and bodily expressions function as social signals: communicative displays of affect that regulate social interaction. It has long been recognized that abilities to read such signals accurately is a kind of social intelligence, distinct from the traditional IQ. An understanding and valid and reliable measures assessing such abilities would be very useful. In recent years a number of techniques have been developed for the automatic analysis of the stream of affect display across time, including facial expressions, body movements and postures, and vocalic analyses. Such techniques enable the efficient and objective recording of the dynamic stream of display and are of immense value, permitting the analysis of the detailed structure of nonverbal “body language” as never before. Potential exists for applications that help to assess the detailed structure of nonverbal receiving abilities: for example, the nature of specific cues that underlie accurate or inaccurate judgment on the part of different receivers.

This chapter considers the conceptual foundations and assumptions underlying measures of social signal pickup and processing, and the current developments art including specific measures that have been proposed. A major challenge is that current approaches are almost exclusively based upon posed or enacted facial and bodily displays, many of them static rather than dynamic. There is much evidence that static and/or posed displays differ from dynamic spontaneous displays involving the authentic experience of emotion on the part of the sender. Evidence suggests that the processing of spontaneous versus posed displays differs as well. A second concern of this chapter involves the concept of emotion sonar: that in interactive situations the tone is set by the display behavior of the sender more than the interpretive skills of the receiver. Given attention, displays are “picked up” automatically, affording mutual contingent responsiveness and enabling primary intersubjectivity vis-á-vis sender and receiver in which each is constantly attuned to the subjective state displayed by the other. Finally, we will consider evidence of the role of the neurohormone oxytocin (OT) in responsiveness to social signals.

Measuring Abilities to “Read” Social Signals

Person Perception Accuracy

Attempts to measure abilities at social recognition, also termed person perception accuracy, date from the 1920s. However, early attempts were frustrated by methodological problems.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ambady, N. & Ambady Rosenthal, R. (1993). Half a minute: Predicting teacher evaluations from thin slices of nonverbal behavior and physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 431–441.Google Scholar
Archer, D., Costanzo, M., & Akert, R. (2001). The Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT): Alternative approaches to problems of theory and design. In J., Hall and R., Bernieri (Eds), Interpersonal Sensitivity (pp. 161–182). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.
Bartz, J. A., Zaki, J., Bolger, N., & Ochsner, K. N. (2011). Social effects of oxytocin in humans: Context and person matter. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(7), 301–309. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.05.002.Google Scholar
Bettadapura, V. (2012). Face Expression Recognition and Analysis: The State of the Art. Tech Report, arXiv:1203.6722, April.
Boone, R. T. & Buck, R. (2004). Emotion Receiving Ability: A new view of measuring individual differences in the ability to accurately judge others' emotions. In G., Geher (Ed.), Measuring Emotional Intelligence: Common Ground and Controversy (pp. 73–89). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science.
Buck, R. (1976). A test of nonverbal receiving ability: Preliminary studies. Human Communication Research, 2, 162–171.Google Scholar
Buck, R. (1984). The Communication of Emotion. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Buck, R. (2005). Measuring emotional experience, expression, and communication: The slideviewing technique. In V., Manusov (Ed.), Beyond Words: A Sourcebook of Methods for Measuring Nonverbal Cues (pp. 457–470). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Buck,, R., Baron, R., Baron & Barrette,, D. (1982). Temporal organization of spontaneous emotional expression: A segmentation analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 506–517.Google Scholar
Buck,, R., Baron,, R., Goodman,, N., & Shapiro,, B. (1980). The unitization of spontaneous nonverbal behavior in the study of emotion communication. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 522–529.Google Scholar
Buck, R., Goldman, C. K., Easton, C. J., & Norelli Smith, N. (1998). Social learning and emotional education: Emotional expression and communication in behaviorally disordered children and schizophrenic patients. In W. F., Flack & J. D., Laird (Eds.), Emotions in Psychopathology (pp. 298–314). New York: Oxford University Press.
Buck, R. & Lerman, J. (1979). General vs. specific nonverbal sensitivity and clinical training. Human Communication, Summer, 267–274.
Buck, R. & Powers, S. R. (2013). Encoding and display: A developmental-Interactionist model of nonverbal sending accuracy. In J., Hall & M., Knapp (Eds.), Nonverbal Communication. (Vol. 2, pp. 403–440). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Buck, R., Powers, S. R., & Kapp, W. (2011). Developing the communication of affect receiving ability test-spontaneous-posed-regulated. International Communication Association Convention, Boston, May 2011.
Buck, R., Renfro, S., & Sheehan, M. (2005). CARAT-05: A new version of the Communication of Affect Receiving Ability Test. Unpublished paper, Department of Communication Sciences, University of Connecticut.
Cohn, D. F. & Schmidt, K. L. (2004). The timing of facial motion in posed and spontaneous smiles. International Journal of Wavelets, Multiresolution, and Information Processing, 2, 1– 12.Google Scholar
Costanzo, M. & Archer, D. (1989). Interpreting the expressive behavior of others: The interpersonal perception task. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 13, 225–245.Google Scholar
De Dreu, C. K. W. (2012). Oxytocin modulates cooperation within and competition between groups: An integrative review and research agenda. Hormones and Behavior, 61(3), 419–428. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2011.12.009.Google Scholar
Domes, G., Heinrichs, M., Michel, A., Berger, C., & Herpertz, S. C. (2007). Oxytocin improves “mind-reading” in humans. Biological Psychiatry, 61(6), 731–733. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.07.015.Google Scholar
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W. (1975). Pictures of Facial Affect. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Ekman, P. & Friesen, W. V. (1982). Felt, false, and miserable smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 6, 238–252.Google Scholar
Feldman, R. (2012). Oxytocin and social affiliation in humans. Hormones and Behavior, 61(3), 380–391. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.20.Google Scholar
Gamer, M., Zurowski, B., & Büchel, C. (2010). Different amygdala subregions mediate valence related and attentional effects of oxytocin in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 9400–9405.Google Scholar
Hess, U., Kappas, A., McHugo, G., Kleck, R., & Lanzetta, J. T. (1989). An analysis of the encoding and decoding of spontaneous and posed smiles: The use of facial electromyography. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 13(2), 121–137.Google Scholar
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D., & Sitarenios, G. (2001). Emotional intelligence as a standard intelligence. Emotion, 1(3), 232–242.Google Scholar
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D. R., & Sitarenios, G. (2003). Modeling and measuring emotional intelligence with the MSCEIT V2.0. Emotion, 3, 97–105.Google Scholar
Murray, L. & Trevarthen, C. (1986). The infant's role in mother–infant communications. Journal of Child Language, 13, 15–29.
Nowicki, S., Jr. & Duke, M. P. (1994). Individual difference in nonverbal communication of affect: The diagnostic analysis of nonverbal accuracy scale. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 18, 9–35.Google Scholar
Powers, S. R. (2009). Toward more ecologically valid emotion displays in brain research: A functional neuroimaging study of the communication of affect receiving ability test. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Connecticut. Thesis C66 2009. Theses 16629.
Powers, S. R., Buck, R., Kiehl, K., & Schaich-Borg, J. (2007). An fMRI study of neural responses to spontaneous emotional expressions: Evidence for a communicative theory of empathy. Paper presented at the 93rd Annual Convention of the National Communication Association. Chicago.
Rockliff, H., Karl, A., McEwan, K. et al. (2011). Effect of oxytocin on compassion-focused imagery. Emotion, 11, 1388–1396.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, R., Hall, J., Archer, P., DiMatteo, M. R., & Rogers, P. L. (1979). The PONS test: Measuring sensitivity to nonverbal cues. In S., Weitz (Ed.), Nonverbal Communication (2nd edn, pp. 449–511) New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Sabatelli, R. M., Buck, R., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). A social relations analysis of nonverbal communication accuracy in married couples. Journal of Personality, 54(3), 513–527.Google Scholar
Schmidt, K., Ambadar, Z., Cohn, J., & Reed, L. I. (2006). Movement differences between deliberate and spontaneous facial expressions: Zygomaticus major action in smiling. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 30, 37–52.Google Scholar
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Fischer, M., Dvash, J., et al. (2009). Intranasal administration of oxytocin increases envy and Schadenfreude (gloating). Biological Psychiatry, 66(9), 864–870. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.06.009.Google Scholar
Trevarthen, C. (1979). Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A description of primary intersubjectivity. In M., Bullowa (Ed.), Before Speech: The Beginning of Human Communication (pp. 321–347). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trevarthen, C. & Aitken, K. J. (2001). Infant intersubjectivity: Research, theory, and clinical applications. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(1), 3–48. doi: 10.1111/1469- 7610.00701.Google Scholar
Tronick, E. (1978). The infant's response to entrapment between contradictory messages in a face-to-face interaction. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 17, 1–13.Google Scholar
Hall, J. (2001). The PONS test and the psychometric approach to measuring interpersonal sensitivity. In J., Hall and R., Bernieri (Eds.), Interpersonal Sensitivity (pp. 143–160). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×