Tuesday, February 4, 2014


The article entitled Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six was published on February 3rd using materials and information from the University of Glasgow. This article discusses the research that was conducted and used to conclude that humans have four distinguishable basic emotions, rather than the previously considered six. The previous six basic emotions were happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust, proposed by Dr. Paul Ekman. Researchers at the University of Glasgow challenged this proposal by studying the muscles of the human face. Using the Generative Face Grammar platform developed at the University of Glasgow, and observing the signaling of different emotions from the brain to the face, the team observed that happiness and sadness have their own unique emotional signaling systems, while fear and surprise share a common signal, and anger and disgust share a common signal. One of the members of the team, Dr. Jack, said "We show that 'basic' facial expression signals are perceptually segmented across time and follow an evolving hierarchy of signals over time; from the biologically-rooted basic signals to more complex socially-specific signals.”
            This article is important to science because it expands our understanding of how the human brain signals certain muscles, for example in the face, and it challenged the previously accepted idea that humans had six basic emotions. This shows that science is constantly progressing and that everything we know about the world around us can still be tested and improved. This is helpful for scientific discovery regarding more complicated things as well. With all of the technology the University of Glasgow created to complete this experiment, the team will be deciding new ways to expand their research. For example, in the near future, the researchers plan to use the equipment and knowledge gained from this experiment and develop their study by observing facial expressions from people of different cultures.
            I think this article was very interesting and eye opening about human emotions. I personally did not know that there was an accepted understanding that humans have six basic facial expressions, but learning about how it was proved right and then proved wrong was very interesting. It is usually hard to think about having only four emotions when we feel so much more than that on a day to day basis, but looking at the study from a scientific point of view was very interesting.

SOURCE: Rachael, Jack E. "Written All over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather than Six." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 3 Feb. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.

9 comments:

  1. Sabine’s review of the article “Written All Over Your Face: Humans Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six” is very well written. The article discusses how, by studying the muscles on the face, scientists at the University of Glasgow have concluded that humans actually only display four emotions. Sabine did a good job with summarizing the article briefly and concisely. Summarizing is an important skill to have and its seems that she has mastered it. Sabine also did a good job with relating the discovery with the ever-changing aspect of science that wonders us all. I would not have made this connection by just reading an article about a new discovery that refutes a previous hypothesis. Sabine also did a good job with discussing looking to the future. She talks about how the technology being used at Glasgow can and will be used for important discoveries in the future. She even discusses ways the experiments can be expanded upon.
    Despite being well written, Sabine’s review could be improved upon slightly. For example, Sabine could have used more quotes. She used one quote effectively, but could have used more to better support her argument. Sabine could have also explained how the muscles were studied to come to the conclusion that we only display four emotions. It would have been interesting to know what types of technology were used. Sabine’s review was still very interesting despite these changes.
    What I found really interesting is that the human body is still being fully discovered. It brings a good outlook for science in the future. Sabine’s review was definitely worth the read.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sabine summarized the article, “Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six,” very well. She included that there were previously six considered basic emotions suggested by Dr. Paul Ekman. Also, she noted that the University of Glasgow created a Generative Face Grammar platform to observe the signaling of different emotions from the brain to the face. Furthermore, Sabine stated that, “…the team observed that happiness and sadness have their own unique emotional signaling systems, while fear and surprise share a common signal, and anger and disgust share a common signal.” Sabine also did a great job connecting the importance of the article to the field of science. She recognized that the study increases our knowledge of the human brain and face. However, most importantly, she recognized that science is always growing and scientific beliefs can still be tested. Lastly, Sabine did a good job including the future of the University of Glasgow, concerning this study. For example, she states, “…in the near future, the researchers plan to use the equipment and knowledge gained from this experiment and develop their study by observing facial expressions from people of different cultures.” Overall, Sabine’s article review was easy to follow, brief, and well-organized.
    Although Sabine’s review was well-written, there are still ways to improve it. She could have explained the quote at the end of her first paragraph. Also, Sabine could have talked about the Generative Face Grammar platform in detail since that was used to gather the data.
    After reading the article and its review, I learned that there were actually six accepted basic emotions prior to this study. This surprised me because the emotions that humans experience are all scattered and vary every day. Sabine’s review and the original article were informative and interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read Sabine Abukhadra’s review of the article, Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Different Emotions Rather Than Six. I really liked how well she explained the article. It was easy to understand, and I knew what was going on the whole time. I also enjoyed her choice of topic since I had no previous knowledge of the science of facial expressions. Finally, I also enjoyed how she stuck in her own opinion about the article because I do agree that it seems like there are many different emotions that I experience instead of just four.
    Although Sabine did an excellent job of reviewing the article, I wish that she had included what the four emotions that we express were because I am very curious as to what they are. Additionally, I wish that she could have described how the scientists originally proved that humans express six different emotions, disproved that claim, and then proved that humans only have four. On the whole, I think Sabine did a great job.
    This article is relevant to society as a whole because human emotions govern human behavior, a current mystery to mankind. If you can figure out what other people are thinking, it is much easier to be sensitive to other peoples’ needs, emotions and wants.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think that Sabine did a great job reviewing the article, “Written All Over Your Face: Humans Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six”. She discusses how before the research at the University of Glasgow many people believed that there were 6 basic facial emotions, however through their research they have found that there are 4. She says how the previous six basic emotions were happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust, proposed by Dr. Paul Ekman. Sabine does a really good job summarizing the article and only including the important stuff. She also gives a good about of background information to introduce us to what was found. I also thought Sabine’s paragraph about the importance of this scientific revelation and I though it was interesting that she said “science is constantly progressing and that everything we know about the world around us can still be tested and improved”. However, I think if she had included some information about the research or the experiments on how the scientists in the University of Glasgow found these four basic facial features to give us some background. Also, it would be interesting how they disproved two of the previous basic facial features. I also think that if she had included what the four basic emotions are it would have been interesting. I agree with Sabine that it is very interesting that scientists have found that they were only 6, now 4, basic facial features. Overall, Sabine’s review was very interesting and I learned about the basic facial features that I did not know before.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sabine constructed a really interesting review on a very interesting article. One aspect of this article that was well presented was her ability to introduce the new distinguishable basic emotions that now challenge the once accepted idea that we had six. The previous basic emotions were happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. However, after research done at the University of Glasgow, they concluded that happiness and sadness have their own unique emotion, whereas fear and surprise share a common signal, as well as anger and disgust. Another aspect that was well presented in this review was the way she introduced what the researchers have in store for the near future. She claims that they plan to use the equipment that they created in order to complete the emotions experiment to develop their study by observing facial expressions from people of different cultures. Lastly, Sabine’s opinion on this article was well presented and thought provoking. She mentions how it is hard to think that we only have four emotions when we feel so much more than that on a day-to-day basis.
    Although this review was very articulate and well-presented, there were some things that could have made it even better. It would have been interesting to learn about the background on this research and look into why exactly these researchers challenged the original six basic emotion claim. Next, I would have liked to learn more about what these scientists have in store for the near future aside from observing facial expressions from people of different cultures. After reading this article along with Sabine’s review, I was most impress with the fact that science is being challenged and altered every single day, even in the twenty-first century.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am commenting on Sabine’s review of the article: “Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six.” Sabine clearly presented the previous belief that humans have six distinguishable basic emotions. Also well presented was the new and improved idea that humans actually have four, not six, distinguishable basic emotions. A third aspect of the review that was well presented was Sabine’s connection to humanity. This was interesting because she made a valid point that this discovery proves that science is constantly evolving and improving. The review could perhaps be improved by an elaboration of the science behind the discovery. Sabine could have talked more about how the brain signals certain human muscles because the reader is undoubtedly curious about how that works. Sabine could have also somehow connected this discovery more with humanity, though I’m not quite sure how this could have been done. I was impressed with the quotations Sabine included because they were very informative. I learned a lot from Dr. Jack’s quote, reading: "We show that 'basic' facial expression signals are perceptually segmented across time and follow an evolving hierarchy of signals over time; from the biologically-rooted basic signals to more complex socially-specific signals.”

    ReplyDelete
  7. I read Sabine’s summary of the article, “Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six.” The article discusses the experiments conducted by scientists at the University of Glasgow, which have led them to the conclusion that humans only display four emotions, compared to the previously-thought 6 possible emotions. I enjoyed reading hear review for several reasons, one of them being her connection of the article to the science world and how it could be applied to other areas and what the future could hold for this technology. I also thought her writing was clear and that it was easy to understand the message she was trying to convey with each sentence. One interesting thing she recognized was that the study increases our knowledge of the correlation of a person’s brain to their facial expressions and emotions. The main assertion that I found imperative was the belief that scientific “facts” can always be tested and altered.
    Sabine’s review was written meticulously, but there are a few changes that could be made to make it even better. One such change is the inclusion of additional quotes, which could have helped her support her argument more profoundly. Also, I would have been interested to learn more about the Generative Face Grammar platform because it was used to collect the data, and I would like to find out more about how that was achieved. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sabine’s review on the article; particularly because it made me realize that the intricacies of the human body are still being discovered. I also did not know that there had previously been 6 accepted human emotions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I read Sabine’s summary and critique of the article “Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six” by Jack E. Rachael and thought that she did a great job presenting the information and then reviewing it. Sabine was able to sum up the data and ideas expressed in the original article briefly while keeping the topic interesting. She was also able to observe some major take aways from the topic and the new discoveries regarding human expression as well as tell what other research still needs to be done in the field. I think that it was great that she added this, because many other current event reports lack what the next step in that topic is. A third thing that Sabine did well was that she seamlessly incorporated a quote from the original text and the quote that she chose did not take away from the overall review. Overall, Sabine did a wonderful job reviewing this scientifically relevant article.
    Although Sabine’s current events report was extremely well done, there were a few things that I think it lacked. I wish that she would have described and discussed more the ways in which this new conclusion was reached. Similar to Sabine, I agree that I had thought there were many more emotions that just these newly determined four, so how were scientists able to narrow the field down to just four? Another aspect that could have been improved was the inclusion of more details regarding the original platform, when there were six human emotions. With this I would have liked to have seen why new studies were even conducted.
    I found the article and topic that Sabine reviewed to be extremely interesting and relevant. I find it slightly shocking how little we know about our own species and how we are continuing to reform our ideas of who we are as people. The topic that Sabine chose to write about was intensely intriguing and she was able to present the information in a clear and concise way.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I really enjoyed reading Sabine’s summary of the article Written All Over Your Face: Humans Express Four Basic Emotions Rather Than Six. I thought that she did a great job summarizing the article by keeping it brief while still retaining all of the key information. On such an interesting topic it is easy to give a long-winded example, however I thought that she did a great job cutting out any unnecessary information. I also liked how Sabine talked about the importance of such a discovery. She made it immediately clear just how revolutionary this discovery is. It completely goes against years of believing that humans were able to express 6 emotions. I also liked that she wrote about the implications of such a discovery. The application of this newfound knowledge is probably the most important piece, and it was smart that she chose to include that. I think that Sabine’s summary could have been even stronger if she had added more about the implications of this discovery. It is obviously important that we understand the differences, but the most important part is that we learn what this change means. Why does it matter that humans can only display four emotions rather than six? Another thing that Sabine could have improved on would be the number of quotes from the article. Quotes help to strengthen a summary by giving specific examples from the author. I think that with a few quotes her summary would have been even stronger. I really had no previous knowledge about the study of human emotions. I didn't know that people could only show four different emotions, and I am very surprised at how low that number is, considering the wide range of emotions we tend to feel throughout our daily lives.

    ReplyDelete