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Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute

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Abstract

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS) (Ekman & Friesen, 1978) is a comprehensive and widely used method of objectively describing facial activity. Little is known, however, about inter-observer reliability in coding the occurrence, intensity, and timing of individual FACS action units. The present study evaluated the reliability of these measures. Observational data came from three independent laboratory studies designed to elicit a wide range of spontaneous expressions of emotion. Emotion challenges included olfactory stimulation, social stress, and cues related to nicotine craving. Facial behavior was video-recorded and independently scored by two FACS-certified coders. Overall, we found good to excellent reliability for the occurrence, intensity, and timing of individual action units and for corresponding measures of more global emotion-specified combinations.

Notes

Associated Center(s) / Consortia: Vision and Autonomous Systems Center

Associated Lab(s) / Group(s): Face Group and Component Analysis

Associated Project(s): Facial Expression Analysis

Text Reference

M.A. Sayette, Jeffrey Cohn, J.M. Wertz, M.A. Perrott, and D.J. Parrott, "A psychometric evaluation of the Facial Action Coding System for assessing spontaneous expression," Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Vol. 25, 2001, pp. 167 - 186.

BibTeX Reference

@article{Cohn_2001_4008,
   author = "M.A. Sayette and Jeffrey Cohn and J.M. Wertz and M.A. Perrott and D.J. Parrott",
   title = "A psychometric evaluation of the Facial Action Coding System for assessing spontaneous expression",
   journal = "Journal of Nonverbal Behavior",
   pages = "167 - 186",
   year = "2001",
   volume = "25",
}

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