Abstract:

In face cognition, facial gender and emotional expression have different processing mechanisms. The models of face cognition from Bruce & Young (1986) and Haxby, Hoffman & Gobbini (2000) focused on expression processing. However, there was little interpretation about the facial gender processing, and the relationship between gender and expression processing was not illustrated in those models. Although several studies suggest that gender and expression processing may interact with each other, there is still no direct evidence. We proposed that the effect of facial familiarity might had been neglected in previous studies using the Garner’s paradigm. Meanwhile, the face adaption paradigm might provide a new way to examine the relationship between the facial gender and expression processing. The mechanisms of the interaction would also be discussed in this review.

Key words: face cognition, facial gender, emotional expression, independence, interaction