基本情緒臉孔特徵的獨特性不同，當情緒間有共享特徵時，將導致區辨兩情緒的困難。本實驗目的在於探討厭惡與生氣間的混淆以及其機制。實驗一藉由情緒臉孔分類作業，要求受試者判斷基本情緒臉孔所反映的情緒類型與強度。以電腦螢幕呈現厭惡、生氣、害怕及悲傷四種負向臉孔圖片(陳麗芬, 2007)，每張圖片皆有高、低兩種情緒強度。爾後，使用多元尺度方法進行分析。結果發現：相較於恐懼與悲傷，厭惡臉似乎更容易被判別為生氣臉，特別是低強度的厭惡臉易被歸類為高強度的生氣臉。實驗二就此現象探討厭惡與生氣的混淆機制是否涉及早期處理歷程的重疊，操弄促發項為四種高強度的負向情緒臉孔、正向臉及中性臉，呈現時間為33毫秒與100毫秒，目標項則為低強度厭惡與快樂臉孔。受試者需判斷目標項為正向或負向情緒。結果發現，在33毫秒情境中，相較於中性臉孔而言，厭惡臉與生氣臉皆具促發效果，原因來自厭惡與生氣在早期處理歷程的重疊，且可能涉及特徵層次的相似性。實驗三就此現象進一步探討厭惡與生氣的主要混淆特徵，分為三A(上半臉促發)與三B(下半臉促發)，操弄促發項為四種高強度的負向情緒臉孔及中性臉，呈現時間為33毫秒，目標項則為低強度厭惡與快樂臉孔，受試者需判斷目標項為正向或負向情緒。結果發現，上半臉情境中，厭惡臉與生氣臉皆具促發效果，而下半臉情境中僅厭惡臉具促發效果，因此，厭惡與生氣的主要混淆特徵來自臉孔上半部。The degree of distinctiveness between emotions is not uniform. The shared features between different emotional face result in confusion of emotion. We aimed to investigate whether the confusion between different facial expressions manifests and if so why. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge emotional category and intensity of presented expression. Results revealed participants were more likely to confuse disgust with low intensity anger compared to other emotions. We adopted affective priming paradigm and manipulated prime types with different part of facial expressions presented in Experiment 2, 3A, and 3B: whole face, upper half, and lower half, respectively. The prime duration of Experiment 2 was manipulated in 33 ms and 100. We found both of disgusted and angry prime would facilitate participants’ performance to judge the disgusted target face when the prime was shown for 33 ms. Because in Experiment 2 the priming effect appeared only with the short-term duration, we used only short duration (33 ms) in Experiment 3. And we found that the disgusted and angry upper faces would also enhance the performance of judging a disgusted target face (Exp3A). No such priming effect was found in lower-half condition (Exp3B) while the prime was angry face. Collectively, our findings suggest there was confusion between anger and disgust, and that this confusion resulted from overlapping the facial features on upper half faces.
