Memory-guided Prototypical Co-occurrence Learning for Mixed Emotion Recognition
arXiv:2602.20530v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Emotion recognition from multi-modal physiological and behavioral signals plays a pivotal role in affective computing, yet most existing models remain constrained to the prediction of singular emotions in controlled laboratory settings. Real-world human emotional experiences, by contrast, are often characterized by the simultaneous presence of multiple affective states, spurring recent interest in mixed emotion recognition as an emotion distribution learning problem. Current approaches, however, often neglect the valence consistency and structured correlations inherent among coexisting emotions. To address this limitation, we propose a Memory-guided Prototypical Co-occurrence Learning (MPCL) framework that explicitly models emotion co-occurrence patterns. Specifically, we first fuse multi-modal signals via a multi-scale associative memory mechanism. To capture cross-modal semantic relationships, we construct emotion-specific prototype me
arXiv:2602.20530v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Emotion recognition from multi-modal physiological and behavioral signals plays a pivotal role in affective computing, yet most existing models remain constrained to the prediction of singular emotions in controlled laboratory settings. Real-world human emotional experiences, by contrast, are often characterized by the simultaneous presence of multiple affective states, spurring recent interest in mixed emotion recognition as an emotion distribution learning problem. Current approaches, however, often neglect the valence consistency and structured correlations inherent among coexisting emotions. To address this limitation, we propose a Memory-guided Prototypical Co-occurrence Learning (MPCL) framework that explicitly models emotion co-occurrence patterns. Specifically, we first fuse multi-modal signals via a multi-scale associative memory mechanism. To capture cross-modal semantic relationships, we construct emotion-specific prototype memory banks, yielding rich physiological and behavioral representations, and employ prototype relation distillation to ensure cross-modal alignment in the latent prototype space. Furthermore, inspired by human cognitive memory systems, we introduce a memory retrieval strategy to extract semantic-level co-occurrence associations across emotion categories. Through this bottom-up hierarchical abstraction process, our model learns affectively informative representations for accurate emotion distribution prediction. Comprehensive experiments on two public datasets demonstrate that MPCL consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods in mixed emotion recognition, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Executive Summary
The proposed Memory-guided Prototypical Co-occurrence Learning framework addresses the limitations of existing emotion recognition models by explicitly modeling emotion co-occurrence patterns. It utilizes a multi-scale associative memory mechanism, emotion-specific prototype memory banks, and prototype relation distillation to capture cross-modal semantic relationships. The framework demonstrates improved performance in mixed emotion recognition, outperforming state-of-the-art methods on two public datasets. This approach has significant implications for affective computing and human-computer interaction, enabling more accurate and nuanced understanding of human emotions.
Key Points
- ▸ Memory-guided Prototypical Co-occurrence Learning framework for mixed emotion recognition
- ▸ Utilization of multi-scale associative memory mechanism and emotion-specific prototype memory banks
- ▸ Introduction of memory retrieval strategy to extract semantic-level co-occurrence associations
Merits
Improved Performance
The proposed framework demonstrates improved performance in mixed emotion recognition, outperforming state-of-the-art methods on two public datasets.
Nuanced Understanding of Emotions
The approach enables a more accurate and nuanced understanding of human emotions, capturing the complexity of real-world emotional experiences.
Demerits
Limited Generalizability
The framework's performance may be limited to the specific datasets and experimental settings used in the study, and may not generalize to other contexts or populations.
Expert Commentary
The proposed Memory-guided Prototypical Co-occurrence Learning framework represents a significant advancement in emotion recognition, addressing the limitations of existing models and enabling more accurate and nuanced understanding of human emotions. The approach has the potential to improve human-computer interaction and has significant implications for affective computing. However, further research is needed to fully explore the framework's capabilities and limitations, and to ensure its generalizability to various contexts and populations.
Recommendations
- ✓ Further research on the framework's generalizability and limitations
- ✓ Development of policies and guidelines for the use of emotion recognition technologies