Running Head:Recognition of facial emotions and expression, DOP 1

The University of Sheffield

International Faculty

PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Recognition of facial emotion and expression in

people with anxiety and mood disorders using the
Differential Outcomes Procedure

Emmanouil Papaemmanouil

June 2023
Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 2

The University of Sheffield

International Faculty

PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

Recognition of facial emotion and

expression in people with anxiety and
mood disorders using the Differential
Outcomes Procedure

This report is submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) IN PSYCHOLOGY by

Emmanouil Papaemmanouil

June 2023

Supervisor

Professor Ana Vivas

Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 3

Recognition of facial emotion and expression in people

with anxiety and mood disorders using the Differential
Outcomes Procedure

Emmanouil Papaemmanouil

Abstract
Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 4

DECLARATION

All sentences or passages quoted in this dissertation from other people’s work have been
specifically acknowledgement by clear cross-referencing to author, work and ages(s).I
understand
that failure to do this amounts to plagiarism and will be considered grounds for failure
in this
dissertation and the degree examination as a whole.

Name: Emmanouil Papaemmanouil

Signed: Emmanouil Papaemmanouil Date: 2/6/2023

Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 5
Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 6

Table of contents

Recognition of facial emotion and expression in people with anxiety and mood disorders
using the Differential Outcomes Procedure........................................................................... 1
Abstract..................................................................................................................................... 3
DECLARATION...................................................................................................................... 4
Table of contents....................................................................................................................... 6
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Importance of emotion and expression recognition in psychology................................7
1.2 Facial recognition in people with anxiety and mood disorders......................................7
1.3 Differential Outcomes Procedure, how does it work ?.................................................. 8
1.4 Research gap.................................................................................................................. 9
1.5 Research aim................................................................................................................ 10
2. Methodology....................................................................................................................... 10
2.1 Participants................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Measures.......................................................................................................................10
2.3 Design...........................................................................................................................10
2.4 Procedure......................................................................................................................11
2.5 Ethics............................................................................................................................ 11
2.6 Analysis........................................................................................................................ 11
3. Results..................................................................................................................................11
4. Discussion............................................................................................................................ 11
4.1 Limitations....................................................................................................................11
4.2 Implications.................................................................................................................. 11
4.3 Future Research............................................................................................................12
4.4 Conclusion....................................................................................................................12
References............................................................................................................................... 12
Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 7

1. Introduction

1.1 Importance of emotion and expression recognition in psychology

Recognition of facial expressions and emotions plays an important role not only in the field

of psychology but also in the everyday life of an individual. Facial expressions are crucial to

understanding non-verbal communication, providing hints about an individual’s emotional

state or intentions. As a result, it allows the person to interact with other individuals

effectively and comprehend the context or significance of their interaction. It is also a great

way for a psychologist to understand and communicate with a client more effectively. This

method of identifying emotions is used in many different areas of psychology and with many

different tools. For instance, to determine whether a suspect is lying during an interview,

forensic psychologists examine the slightest changes in an individual's expression using

simultaneously a lie detector as a tool.

1.2 Facial recognition in people with anxiety and mood disorders

Anxiety and mood disorders can lead to an inability to accurately predict facial expressions or

emotions, there are some studies that support this claim. Research conducted in 2019 showed

that individuals who experience high anxiety levels are more sensitive to angry faces than

individuals who experience other types of emotions. In this experiment, researchers used an

emotional recognition task in which the participants had to distinguish between a happy face,

an angry face, and a sad face. All of the participants in this study had been diagnosed with

anxiety disorders, ranging in severity from mild to severe. The face displayed on the screen

also displayed a certain emotion (sad, happy, angry), with high-intensity and low-intensity

levels. People who experienced high levels of anxiety were equally sensitive to angry faces of
Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 8

low and high intensity, which indicates a strong positive correlation between those two

(Wonjun Kang et al. 2019). Although people with anxiety disorder seem to have a sensitivity

to angry faces, there is research indicating that individuals with mood disorders, specifically

bipolar disorder, have a tendency to misidentify faces and expressions as angry faces (Erin B

McClure et al. 2003).

1.3 Differential Outcomes Procedure, how does it work ?

Differential outcomes procedure (DOP) implies that a correct choice of response in a

conditional discriminative task to a specific stimulus-stimulus association is reinforced with a

particular reinforcer or outcome (Trapold, 1970; Trapold and Overmier, 1972). Differential

outcomes procedure can serve as a condition for discriminating learning in humans and

animals, but it can also be used to improve memory. Trapold published the first

demonstration of DOP in rats in 1970. Rats learned association faster and with a higher

degree of accuracy when the correct choices they made were reinforced according to DOP

rather than the common outcomes procedure that uses only one type of reinforcement

(Trapold, 1970). There are indications and research that have been conducted about DOP,

how effective it can be, and how an individual can improve their memory function and

learning behavior. Research that happened in Greece in 2018 regarding the visuospatial

memory of people with Alzheimer’s disease showed that individuals with Alzheimer’s

performed better using DOP than the non-differential outcomes procedure (NOP). Although

people with Alzheimer’s disease took longer to benefit from DOP than people without the

disease, this research was conducted with three different groups: patients with Alzheimer's

disease, patients with mild cognitive impairment, and a healthy control group. All of these
Recognition of facial emotions and expression, Differential Outcomes Procedure 9

groups performed better using DOP than NOP. A similar study at the University of Almeria

by the psychology department that took place in 2020 examined schizotypy patients who are

defined as having similar traits to schizophrenia. They included high schizotypy patients and

low ones, for which they used a differential outcome procedure (DOP), however, they

showed no difference in recognizing facial expressions, but both groups showed

improvement after training with a differential outcome procedure (Antonio

González-Rodríguez et al., 2020). Another study on how DOP can be beneficial for facial

recognition Hochhalter et al. (2000) trained four patients with alcohol-induced amnesia who

had short-term memory deficits, particularly for faces and names, by tasking them to identify

which of the two faces on the screen matched a previously demonstrated face. Results

showed that patients who performed the task with DOP had better recognition memory than

those who used the non-differential outcomes procedure. In conclusion, there are many

studies and implications that show that indeed DOP can improve an individual's learning

process but can also benefit people with memory loss or difficulty recognizing facial

emotions. Although, according to previously mentioned studies, DOP may need a longer

period of time and trials to work for some individuals who have memory dysfunction or a

disease targeting brain function.

1.4 Research gap

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10

1.5 Research aim

2. Methodology

2.1 Participants

2.2 Measures

2.3 Design
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11

2.4 Procedure

2.5 Ethics

Application Number: 1016

2.6 Analysis

3. Results

4. Discussion

4.1 Limitations

4.2 Implications
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12

4.3 Future Research

4.4 Conclusion

References