Emotion Recognition Test: Format and Practice

An emotion recognition test shows you faces and asks which emotion each one expresses. In hiring, the best-known version is the Arctic Shores Expressions game: a computer-generated face, seven buttons (the six basic emotions plus neutral), about four seconds per face, 50 to 60 faces. Pymetrics has a similar Faces game, and clinical and research tests such as the Penn ER40 and the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test use related formats. Most errors come from three confusable pairs, and the facial cues that separate them can be learned in an hour.

Key facts

What the Arctic Shores emotion recognition test looks like

The following is from a German-language Arctic Shores assessment in autumn 2026, where the game was called "Gesichtsausdruck" (facial expression).

• Practice block, then main block. Seven practice faces with their own progress bar, then 60 scored faces; the numbering restarts at 1.
• Layout. The face fills the left half. Seven buttons sit on the right in a fixed pattern that never changes: Traurigkeit (sadness) at the top, Wut (anger) upper left, Ekel (disgust) upper right, Neutral in the centre, Angst (fear) lower left, Freude (happiness) lower right, Überraschung (surprise) at the bottom.
• Faces. Computer-generated, photorealistic avatars of different ages, sexes and ethnicities. Around ten identities recur with different expressions, so you will see the same face neutral and emotional.
• Intensity. Most expressions are subtle. Only a minority are full, textbook expressions.
• Timer. A stopwatch icon fills during each face; no number is shown. The pace that felt natural was about 4 seconds per face, so the 60-face block took about 4 minutes.
• Navigation. "Weiter" (Next) unlocks once you have picked a label. There is no feedback.

The English version of this game is listed by a prep site as "Expressions", with 50 faces and the same seven labels; counts may differ by employer or version.

The seven labels and their facial cues

The Facial Action Coding System (FACS, Ekman & Friesen 1978; revised 2002) describes faces as numbered action units (AUs), each a visible muscle movement. The prototype combinations below are the standard EMFACS-style summary used in the literature. Real test faces often show only part of a prototype.

AU names used above: 1 inner brow raiser, 2 outer brow raiser, 4 brow lowerer, 5 upper lid raiser, 6 cheek raiser, 7 lid tightener, 9 nose wrinkler, 10 upper lip raiser, 12 lip corner puller, 15 lip corner depressor, 17 chin raiser, 20 lip stretcher, 23 lip tightener, 26 jaw drop.

The confusable pairs

Fear vs surprise

This is the most common error in facial expression research. Both raise the brows and widen the eyes, and dynamic studies show the two share their early signals and separate only later (Jack, Garrod & Schyns, 2014). Observers from different cultures also differ in how strongly they confuse the pair (Jack et al., 2009).

Fast rule: look between the brows. Any pull together means fear.

Disgust vs anger

Both can lower the brows and both look "hostile". Early dynamic signals overlap (a wrinkled nose appears in both), and disgust becomes clear with the later raise of the upper lip (Jack et al., 2014).

Fast rule: if the nose is wrinkled, it is disgust. Narrowed eyes with a raised upper lip are disgust, not fear; fear always has wide eyes.

Neutral vs a faint emotion

In hiring tests, this is where most points go. Recognition accuracy falls steadily as expression intensity falls (Hess, Blairy & Kleck, 1997), and some neutral faces look slightly emotional because of their resting structure (Said, Sebe & Todorov, 2009). Three common cases:

• Faint sadness vs neutral. The give-away is the inner brow corners: slightly raised and angled even when the mouth is barely down. A face with naturally downturned lips but level brows is usually neutral.
• Faint happiness vs neutral. Look for lip corners pulled up and back plus any cheek movement. Closed lips with a softened mouth line but no corner pull is usually neutral.
• Faint anger vs neutral. Look for a slight lowering of the brows toward the nose and pressed lips together. One cue alone can be resting face; two together point to anger.

Because identities recur, compare: if you have seen this avatar's neutral face, any change from it is the expression.

Original practice set

Each description is original and lists only the action units visible. Choose one of the seven labels.

1. Brows lifted high and arched, long forehead lines, eyes wide, jaw hanging open, lips soft.
2. Inner brow corners lifted slightly, brows angled upward toward the middle, mouth closed, corners a touch lower than usual.
3. Brows pulled down and together, upper eyelids raised so the eyes stare, lips pressed into a thin line.
4. Nose creased along the bridge, upper lip lifted on one side, lower eyelids pushed up by the cheeks.
5. Lip corners drawn up and out, cheeks lifted, small creases at the outer eye corners.
6. Brows raised but flattened and pulled toward each other, lower lids tense, lips stretched horizontally, mouth slightly open.
7. Brows level, eyes relaxed, lips closed, mouth corners straight.
8. Brows level, eyes relaxed, lips just parted, no corner movement.
9. Brows slightly lowered, a faint vertical line between them, lips lightly pressed; nothing else moves.
10. Eyes wide, brows raised and pulled together, chin pulled back, lip corners stretched toward the ears.
11. Brows lowered and drawn together, nose wrinkled with the nostrils lifted, mouth closed with the lip corners down.
12. Mouth corners turned slightly down, chin raised so the lower lip pushes up, inner brows lifted.

Answers and reasoning:

1. Surprise. Raised, curved brows with no pull together; relaxed open jaw.
2. Sadness. Oblique inner brows are the decisive cue even with a nearly neutral mouth.
3. Anger. Lowered, drawn brows plus staring eyes plus pressed lips.
4. Disgust. Nose wrinkle and raised upper lip; narrowed lower lids from the cheek raise.
5. Happiness. Lip corner pull with cheek raise and crow's feet.
6. Fear. Brows raised and drawn together, tense lids, lips stretched sideways. Not surprise: the lips are stretched, not relaxed.
7. Neutral. No action units.
8. Neutral. Parted lips alone are not surprise; surprise needs raised brows and a dropped jaw.
9. Anger (low intensity). Two anger cues together (brow lowering, lip press). If only one were present, neutral would be the safer label.
10. Fear. Wide eyes with drawn brows and stretched lips.
11. Disgust. The lowered, drawn brows tempt you toward anger, but the nose wrinkle decides it; anger leaves the nose smooth.
12. Sadness. Corners down, chin raised, inner brows up: the full sadness pattern at low intensity.

Traps and how to avoid them

• Defaulting to Neutral. When unsure, people over-use Neutral. Scan for the one decisive cue for each emotion before you settle on it.
• Reading the mouth only. Brows separate fear from surprise and sadness from neutral; the mouth alone often misleads.
• Assuming a balanced key. Do not try to even out your labels across emotions. Label each face on its cues.
• Looking for the button. At about 4 seconds per face, hunting for the label costs real time. Learn the fixed layout in the practice block.
• Overthinking a subtle face. Take the best reading from the brows-eyes-nose-mouth scan and move on; there is no going back.

How to practise for an emotion recognition test

1. Learn the cue table (20 minutes). Memorise one decisive cue per label: crow's feet + corner pull (happiness), oblique inner brows (sadness), curved raised brows + relaxed open jaw (surprise), raised and drawn brows + stretched lips (fear), lowered brows + pressed lips (anger), wrinkled nose + raised upper lip (disgust).
2. Fixed scan order. Brows → eyes → nose → mouth, every face. It turns a gut call into a checklist that takes about 2 seconds.
3. Mirror drill (10 minutes). Make each expression at low intensity in a mirror. Feeling the muscles makes the cues easier to spot on others.
4. Muted video drill (10 minutes a day). Watch interviews or drama with the sound off, pause at random and label the face with one of the seven words, then check against context.
5. Speed pass. Once accuracy feels stable, aim for one label every 3–4 seconds. Speed without the scan order just creates errors.
6. On the day. Use the practice block to learn the button layout and the recurring faces' neutral look.

Research instruments such as the Penn ER40 or the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test are built for research and clinical settings, not for prep; access usually goes through the research groups that maintain them. Their formats differ from hiring games (photos vs video, five or fourteen labels), so the cue-based drills above transfer better.

Sources

• Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1978). Facial Action Coding System. Consulting Psychologists Press; Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., & Hager, J. C. (2002). Facial Action Coding System: The Manual. A Human Face.
• Facial Action Coding System overview with AU names and EMFACS prototypes
• Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 6(3–4), 169–200.
• Jack, R. E., Garrod, O. G. B., & Schyns, P. G. (2014). Dynamic facial expressions of emotion transmit an evolving hierarchy of signals over time. Current Biology, 24, 187–192. Summary: https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/study-dynamic-facial-expressions-suggests-there-are-four-basic-emotions-not-six
• Jack, R. E., Blais, C., Scheepers, C., Schyns, P. G., & Caldara, R. (2009). Cultural confusions show that facial expressions are not universal. Current Biology, 19, 1543–1548.
• Hess, U., Blairy, S., & Kleck, R. E. (1997). The intensity of emotional facial expressions and decoding accuracy. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21, 241–257. https://www.ursulakhess.com/resources/HBK97.pdf
• Said, C. P., Sebe, N., & Todorov, A. (2009). Structural resemblance to emotional expressions predicts evaluation of emotionally neutral faces. Emotion, 9, 260–264.
• Gur, R. C., et al. (2010). A cognitive neuroscience-based computerized battery for efficient measurement of individual differences. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 187, 254–262 (Penn ER40).
• Schlegel, K., Grandjean, D., & Scherer, K. R. (2014). Introducing the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test: An example of Rasch-based test development. Psychological Assessment, 26, 666–672.
• Baron-Cohen, S., et al. (2001). The "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" Test revised version. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42, 241–251.
• Game Assessment Prep, Arctic Shores Expressions (50 faces, seven labels)
• Psychometric Success, pymetrics Faces game

Scritto da

Adrian, Specialista

MSc Psicologia, 7 anni di test fatti.

Ultimo aggiornamento: Oct 1, 2026