BESST (Bochum Emotional Stimulus Set)—A pilot validation study of a stimulus set containing emotional bodies and faces from frontal and averted views

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 209; no. 1; pp. 98 - 109
• Main Authors: Thoma, Patrizia, Soria Bauser, Denise, Suchan, Boris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ireland Ltd 30.08.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Body emotional expression; Emotions - physiology; Facial emotion expression; Facial Expression; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Photic Stimulation; Pilot Projects; Posture; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recognition (Psychology); Reproducibility of Results; Set (Psychology); Techniques and methods; Test validation; Young Adult; Body emotional expression; Test validation; Facial emotion expression; Human; Affect affectivity; Emotional expression; Psychometrics; Emotion emotionality; Non verbal communication; Young adult; Face; Corporal expression; Facial expression
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2012.11.012

Abstract This article introduces the freely available Bochum Emotional Stimulus Set (BESST), which contains pictures of bodies and faces depicting either a neutral expression or one of the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise), presented from two different perspectives (0° frontal view vs. camera averted by 45° to the left). The set comprises 565 frontal view and 564 averted view pictures of real-life bodies with masked facial expressions and 560 frontal and 560 averted view faces which were synthetically created using the FaceGen 3.5 Modeller. All stimuli were validated in terms of categorization accuracy and the perceived naturalness of the expression. Additionally, each facial stimulus was morphed into three age versions (20/40/60 years). The results show high recognition of the intended facial expressions, even under speeded forced-choice conditions, as corresponds to common experimental settings. The average naturalness ratings for the stimuli range between medium and high.