How do I choose the difficulty level and the expressions included in the games?

You can choose the level of difficulty and the expressions you want to practice every time you start an exercise in the games section. To choose which emotions to include, just click on the emotions you want to select or check the “Select all” box if you want none to be excluded.

To choose the level, “beginner” or “advanced”, simply check the desired level.

The beginner level includes stimuli that are considered “easy”: static or animated avatars, not mixed with other types of stimuli, and of the same identity. This is applicable to all exercises, except for the “Find the intruder!” game, where it is easier to find the intruder among avatars with different identities.

The advanced level includes more complicated stimuli: in addition to static and video avatars, there are also photos or pictograms. The stimuli are mixed: different types are presented at the same time, for higher levels of difficulty. Identities are different among stimuli in the same trial. (In addition, the colored backgrounds behind the static or animated avatars change randomly in the 3rd set of each activity.) In the advanced mode, pictograms are also introduced. In the advanced mode, a larger number of stimuli can also be presented, for example 6 instead of 4 in the “Pair expressions” game. Photos present additional difficulty, as it is more difficult to identify emotions from a photo than from an avatar. The pictograms are also more complicated because they are more abstract.