The role of experience in the perception of visual events was examined in a study of facial communications. It was hypothesized that the facial expressions manifested by actors as they performed various tasks would be specific to those tasks or reflective of the activities being performed. Consequently, the facial expressions themselves would provide information regarding the task performed, and this information would be more salient for viewers who were familiar with the tasks. Experienced viewers were the best perceivers, but the type of task performed significantly affected viewer's accuracy. A unitization measure recorded by viewers helped to pinpoint some of the reasons for the differential accuracy rates, while also speaking to the hypothesized differences in attensity which distinguished experienced from inexperienced viewers.
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