Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set

Face stimuli are often used in psychological and neuroimaging research to assess perceptual, cognitive, social, and emotional processes. Many available face databases, however, have limited diversity in ethnicity, emotional expression, gaze direction, and/or pose, which constrains their utility to s...

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Main Authors: Menahal Latif, Nicole Sugden, Maire L. O'Hagan, Margaret C. Moulson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-05-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1541546/full
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author Menahal Latif
Nicole Sugden
Maire L. O'Hagan
Margaret C. Moulson
author_facet Menahal Latif
Nicole Sugden
Maire L. O'Hagan
Margaret C. Moulson
author_sort Menahal Latif
collection DOAJ
description Face stimuli are often used in psychological and neuroimaging research to assess perceptual, cognitive, social, and emotional processes. Many available face databases, however, have limited diversity in ethnicity, emotional expression, gaze direction, and/or pose, which constrains their utility to specific contexts. Having a diverse face database can mitigate these biases and may help researchers investigate novel topics that examine the effects of ethnicity on these processes. The Toronto Ethnically Diverse (TED) face database is designed to provide an open-access set of 271 unique White, Black, East-Asian, South-Asian, South-East Asian, Middle Eastern, Multi-racial, and Indigenous adult models. The TED database includes diversity in race, gender, pose, gaze direction, and three emotion variations (neutral, open-mouth happiness, closed-mouth happiness). Validation data of the stimuli based on judgments of the emotional expressions showed high inter-rater reliability and high accuracy as measured by proportion correct and Cohen's kappa scores. Intensity, and genuineness ratings are also presented for each model. The validation results for TED suggest that this face database consists of models displaying their intended emotions with high fidelity. This database will be useful to researchers seeking to study underrepresented groups and to other broad groups of researchers who are studying face perception.
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spelling doaj-art-52d9b2aefc9e4fcf8820f7f94c57577a2025-08-20T02:14:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782025-05-011610.3389/fpsyg.2025.15415461541546Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus setMenahal LatifNicole SugdenMaire L. O'HaganMargaret C. MoulsonFace stimuli are often used in psychological and neuroimaging research to assess perceptual, cognitive, social, and emotional processes. Many available face databases, however, have limited diversity in ethnicity, emotional expression, gaze direction, and/or pose, which constrains their utility to specific contexts. Having a diverse face database can mitigate these biases and may help researchers investigate novel topics that examine the effects of ethnicity on these processes. The Toronto Ethnically Diverse (TED) face database is designed to provide an open-access set of 271 unique White, Black, East-Asian, South-Asian, South-East Asian, Middle Eastern, Multi-racial, and Indigenous adult models. The TED database includes diversity in race, gender, pose, gaze direction, and three emotion variations (neutral, open-mouth happiness, closed-mouth happiness). Validation data of the stimuli based on judgments of the emotional expressions showed high inter-rater reliability and high accuracy as measured by proportion correct and Cohen's kappa scores. Intensity, and genuineness ratings are also presented for each model. The validation results for TED suggest that this face database consists of models displaying their intended emotions with high fidelity. This database will be useful to researchers seeking to study underrepresented groups and to other broad groups of researchers who are studying face perception.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1541546/fullface stimuliface perceptionethnically diverseemotion expressioneye gaze
spellingShingle Menahal Latif
Nicole Sugden
Maire L. O'Hagan
Margaret C. Moulson
Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set
Frontiers in Psychology
face stimuli
face perception
ethnically diverse
emotion expression
eye gaze
title Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set
title_full Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set
title_fullStr Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set
title_full_unstemmed Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set
title_short Toronto Ethnically Diverse face database: a multi-faceted stimulus set
title_sort toronto ethnically diverse face database a multi faceted stimulus set
topic face stimuli
face perception
ethnically diverse
emotion expression
eye gaze
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1541546/full
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AT nicolesugden torontoethnicallydiversefacedatabaseamultifacetedstimulusset
AT mairelohagan torontoethnicallydiversefacedatabaseamultifacetedstimulusset
AT margaretcmoulson torontoethnicallydiversefacedatabaseamultifacetedstimulusset