Does Format Matter? Investigating the Impact of Test Format on Facial Emotion Recognition Ability

The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy 2, Adult Faces subtest (DANVA2-AF), a tool that measures accuracy in facial emotion recognition ability, has been used in hundreds of studies in the United States and at least a dozen other countries. Myriad traditional and digital formats have been used in its administration, with the assumption they would produce the same results. The current study investigated whether presentation format impacted error rates, as well as whether participants would score similarly to other individuals in their age group when compared to previously published norms. Eighty-eight university students, faculty, and staff (70% female, 53% European American) were shown each of the basic 24 facial expression photos for 2 seconds then asked to select whether the facial expression was happy, sad, angry, or fearful. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions of the facial emotion recognition test: physical photobook, Qualtrics online survey, and Python computer program. No significant differences were found in the overall error rates by test format. Current results also did not differ from previously published norms. Although these preliminary findings provide initial evidence that DANVA2-AF is robust with comparable findings over the three most frequently used administration formats, continuing evaluation of comparability needs to be done.