Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2002 - Volume 25, Issue 04  


Short Communication

Psychophysical studies of expressions of pain

Temre N. Davies a1 and Donald D. Hoffman a1
a1 Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 daviest@uci.edu ddhoff@uci.edu

Abstract

What differentiates expressions of pain from other facial expressions? Which facial features convey the most information in an expression of pain? To answer such questions we can explore the expertise of human observers using psychophysical experiments. Techniques such as change detection and visual search can advance our understanding of facial expressions of pain and of evolved mechanisms for detecting these expressions.