Exploring the Interplay between Facial Expression Recognition and Emotional Intelligence in Adults: Implications for Novel Learning Methods
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsDear authors,
I found your study interesting, as it deals with the interplay between facial expression recognition and emotional intelligence, adding relevant information about their implications in learning strategies. After Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to understand how emotion recognition is changed, what is the role on Emotional Intelligence in this shift, and what are its implications in learning methods.
I propose minor revision to improve the quality of the paper.
I suggest adding more information about facial emotion recognition and emotional intelligence when you introduce the first time these constructs in “Introduction”. In this way, it will be clearer what are the theory behind your study, and you will give more information to the readers.
Author Response
Reviewer 1
Thank you for your revisions. We appreciate the suggestions you made. We provide each amendment.
- I suggest adding more information about facial emotion recognition and emotional intelligence when you introduce the first time these constructs in “Introduction”. In this way, it will be clearer what are the theory behind your study, and you will give more information to the readers.
Response: Thank you for your suggestions. We added this deepener information into the introduction paragraph (lines 27-32: “According to Mayer and Salovey (1997), emotional intelligence is a persons’ capability to perceive, express, understand, use, and manage emotions in oneself (personal intelligence) and in others’ (social intelligence) which lead to adaptive behavior. In other words, emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and regulate emotions. On the other hand, face processing is one of the most important functions of the human visual system, and it is essential for normal social functioning”).
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe study is meaningful as it enhances understanding on facial expression and emotion recognition. The paper is well-organized. The design of the study is appropriate to explore the research questions. The study’s objectives, theoretical framework, methods, results, and limitations are logically presented.
However, the following points may need to be addressed:
- Since the participants in the study were all adults, the researcher may consider indicate this specific population in the title of the present paper.
- The assessment tools used in the study were appropriate, but it would be better if the psychometric properties of all the assessment tools were described in the paper.
- In the result section (p. 3), only the condition with more incorrect responses than correct responses were shown. Readers would gain a better understanding on the result of the study if all responses could be shown in a table.
- On p. 6, Table 6, “Analyzing the scores obtained from the responses to the IE,” is “IE” means “EI” in this statement?
- The different effects of the various level of EI on emotion recognition were reported in the study, it would be meaningful to explore the effects of the different components of EI on emotion recognition.
- The study aimed to investigate the effects of different occupations and educational background on EI and emotion recognition. However, uneven distribution of participants across different occupation groups and educational level groups would probably affect the reliability of the results. The researchers may consider using stratified sampling.
- The researcher may consider offering a more detailed discussion on the limitation of the study and suggestion for future research.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageMinor editing of English language is required.
Author Response
Thank you for your revisions. We appreciate the suggestions you made. We provide each amendment.
- Since the participants in the study were all adults, the researcher may consider indicate this specific population in the title of the present paper.
Response: Thanks for your suggestion. We have modified the title adding “in adults”.
- The assessment tools used in the study were appropriate, but it would be better if the psychometric properties of all the assessment tools were described in the paper.
Response: Regarding the first psychometric instrument, i.e. Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test, we have already reported the reliability coefficient Cronbach’s alpha (lines 96-97: “with a Cronbach’s alpha reaching .89”). In addition, we have added information about the psychometric properties, available in validation study, of the second tools “questionnaire derived by Radboud Faces Database (RaFD)” (lines 107-108: […] that has higher median of 88% indicates a skewed distribution of agreement values, with more than 76% of images having an agreement ≥ 80%).
- In the result section (p. 3), only the condition with more incorrect responses than correct responses were shown. Readers would gain a better understanding on the result of the study if all responses could be shown in a table.
Response: Thank you for this suggestion. Since there were 49 types of responses, one for each condition, we thought it more appropriate to list only the data with the greatest relevance. However, we will ask the editor to make the tables with all the data available to readers as supplementary material to the article.
- On p. 6, Table 6, “Analyzing the scores obtained from the responses to the IE,” is “IE” means “EI” in this statement?
Response: Thanks for this review. It was a typing error which we have corrected (line 200).
- The different effects of the various level of EI on emotion recognition were reported in the study, it would be meaningful to explore the effects of the different components of EI on emotion recognition.
Response: Thanks for this so interesting suggestion. It would be really interesting and meaningful exploring the effects of the different components of EI on emotion recognition, but the psychometric tools we used is monofactorial. Although, considering this suggestion to be very interesting, we pointed out within the limits of the work that it would be appropriate to use a multifactorial emotional intelligence assessment tool in future studies (lines 299-302: “In addition, having used a monofactorial psychometric instrument to assess EI, this did not allow us to thoroughly analyze the correlations of this construct with facial emotion recognition. For this reason, it will be essential for future research to be able to adopt a multifactorial instrument for the assessment of EI”).
- The study aimed to investigate the effects of different occupations and educational background on EI and emotion recognition. However, uneven distribution of participants across different occupation groups and educational level groups would probably affect the reliability of the results. The researchers may consider using stratified sampling.
Response: Thank you for this review. We are agree with this suggestion, but deciding to use stratified sampling is something that needs to be foreseen at the design stage of the study. Having decided to use avalanche sampling, we were unable to carry out stratification. However, it would be really interesting to be able to do this in future research, as this would allow us to increase the validity of the data we would obtain, and to be able to generalize it more to the general reference population. Considering, moreover, your review of relevance, we added the lack of the use of stratified sampling to the limits of the work (lines 293-296: “In addition, the snowball sampling method also poses limitations. Indeed, it would be advisable to prefer stratified sampling for future studies, in order to make the results obtained more reliable and more generalizable”).
- The researcher may consider offering a more detailed discussion on the limitation of the study and suggestion for future research.
Response: Thank you for this review. We added more and more detailed limits in our paper, thanks to your previous suggested revisions.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
The present article is devoted to study of facial expression recognition ability and reading facial expressions under different conditions of face coverage and role of Emotional Intelligence in facial expression recognition.
The manuscript is clear, relevant for the field and presented in a well-structured manner.
The cited references are mostly recent publications and relevant.
The manuscript is scientifically sound, and the experimental design is appropriate to test the hypothesis.
The manuscript’s results are reproducible based on the details given in the methods section.
The data is interpreted appropriately and consistently throughout the manuscript.
The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments presented.
The ethics statements and data availability statements are adequate.
Author Response
Thank you for reading and appreciating our article.
