1. Unique featural difference for happy and fear (in top down and middle out) and for happy and disgust (for bottom up): For fear, eyes are open and tense with slanted eyebrows; for happiness, eyes are relaxed with curved eyebrows. For disgust, it is the grimace and the nose; for happiness it is the smile. Limited ability to explore the particular role of these features as either distinctive or holistic. Perhaps, two features are distinctly different rather than a combination. To explore whether one feature provides sufficient information for emotion recognition, a methodology utilizing percentage of the face revealed is warranted. Building upon the current study, we plan to integrate reaction time and face reveal percentage. Alexandra Plott, Katherine Murphy, Natalie DeSanctis, Erin Bertero, Caroline Parker, and Laurie S. Hunter Department of Psychology Importance of the Research Methodology Facial expressions from Pictures of Facial Affect were utilized (Ekman & Friesen, 1973). Slow reveal methodology for which participants chose emotion represented as quickly and accurately as possible. Full facial expression revealed in 28 seconds. Three conditions of face reveal were presented: Top down, middle out, and bottom up Six emotions were displayed: Happy, sad, fear, anger, disgust and neutral. A 6 (Emotion) X 3 (Reveal Type) within subject design was utilized. Face Reveal as a Determinant of Emotional Expression Recognition Findings Interpretation Different parts of the face distinguish different emotions (Ekman & Friesen, 1976; Sullivan & Kirkpatrick, 1996; Eisenbarth & Alpers, 2011) Faces visually process differently than other items Face recognition accuracy links to holistic processing Emotion face recognition links to featural processing Accurate emotion recognition depends on specific featural detection, i.e. different face features distinguish different emotions To better understand the role of face features, a slow reveal methodology was utilized How much facial feature information is necessary for accurate recognition? Main effect: F (5, 70) = 14.967, p < 0.05, Pairwise comparisons indicated happy as the most accurately recognized emotion (M = 0..896, SE = 0.036) and disgust as the least accurately recognized emotion (M = 0.341 SE = 0.060). No differences were found for type of reveal. Interaction effect: F (10, 140) = 7.152, p < 0.05, For the top down and middle out reveal conditions, the order of recognition is happy, fear, anger, sad/neutral, and finally disgust. For the bottom up reveal condition, the order of recognition is happy, disgust, neutral, fear, sad and anger. Participants 37 participants (24 women, 13 men), aged from 18 to 45, M = 20.51, SD =4.38 Abstract The influence of partial facial information on emotion recognition was observed using different face reveal mechanisms. Recognition of facial expressions of emotion was equally accurate for top to bottom and middle outward face reveals. Recognition was least accurate when the face was revealed from bottom to top.  The ultimate goal of our lab is to identify mechanisms to assist individuals with deficits in face processing, e.g. individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Kiln et al, 1999) and victims of child abuse and neglect (Sullivan, Kirkpatrick & MacDonald, 1995).  During social interaction, individuals with high autism spectrum disorder spend less time fixating on the face compared to individuals with low autism spectrum disorder (Hadjikhani et al, 2010).  Victims of child abuse and neglect appear to have a selective focus on particular face features when processing facial expressions of emotion (Sullivan, Kirkpatrick, & MacDonald, 1995). Bottom up Top down Middle Out Evolutionary theory explains a heightened perception into special features which uniquely differentiate particular emotions. Perhaps attuning to featural information for disgust and for fear provides information about survival, via danger or harmful situations or substances. Does the explanation for our findings lie in an evolutionary mechanism? Perhaps, the information garnered from the unique facial features can distinctively convey survival and preparedness information. As we reach the age of reproduction, we need to keep ourselves safe to keep the species going. For fear, the eyes and eyebrows likely convey danger or possible harm. For disgust, the grimace and wrinkled nose likely convey potentially harmful or toxic substances. Our survival and preparedness motives are coupled with our sexual and natural selection motives. The Big Picture