Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions
Being able to recognize facial expressions of basic emotions is of great importance to social development. However, we still know surprisingly little about children’s developing ability to interpret emotions that are expressed dynamically, naturally and subtly, despite real-life expressions having s...
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| Format: | Article |
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SAGE
2017
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42411/ |
| _version_ | 1848796481961590784 |
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| author | Lang, Kathleen Anthoney, Laura Mitchell, Peter |
| author_facet | Lang, Kathleen Anthoney, Laura Mitchell, Peter |
| author_sort | Lang, Kathleen |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Being able to recognize facial expressions of basic emotions is of great importance to social development. However, we still know surprisingly little about children’s developing ability to interpret emotions that are expressed dynamically, naturally and subtly, despite real-life expressions having such appearance in the vast majority of cases. The current research employs a new technique of capturing dynamic, subtly expressed natural emotional displays (happy, sad, angry, shocked and disgusted). Children aged 7, 9 and 11 years (and adults) were systematically able to discriminate each emotional display from alternatives in a 5-way choice. Children were most accurate in identifying the expression of happiness and were also relatively accurate in identifying the expression of sadness; they were far less accurate than adults in identifying shocked and disgusted. Children who performed well academically also tended to be the most accurate in recognizing expressions and this relationship maintained independently of chronological age. Generally, the findings testify to a well-developed ability to recognize very subtle naturally occurring expressions of emotions. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:48:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-42411 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:48:41Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | SAGE |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-424112020-05-04T18:45:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42411/ Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions Lang, Kathleen Anthoney, Laura Mitchell, Peter Being able to recognize facial expressions of basic emotions is of great importance to social development. However, we still know surprisingly little about children’s developing ability to interpret emotions that are expressed dynamically, naturally and subtly, despite real-life expressions having such appearance in the vast majority of cases. The current research employs a new technique of capturing dynamic, subtly expressed natural emotional displays (happy, sad, angry, shocked and disgusted). Children aged 7, 9 and 11 years (and adults) were systematically able to discriminate each emotional display from alternatives in a 5-way choice. Children were most accurate in identifying the expression of happiness and were also relatively accurate in identifying the expression of sadness; they were far less accurate than adults in identifying shocked and disgusted. Children who performed well academically also tended to be the most accurate in recognizing expressions and this relationship maintained independently of chronological age. Generally, the findings testify to a well-developed ability to recognize very subtle naturally occurring expressions of emotions. SAGE 2017-05-15 Article PeerReviewed Lang, Kathleen, Anthoney, Laura and Mitchell, Peter (2017) Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions. Perception, 46 (9). pp. 1077-1089. ISSN 1468-4233 emotion facial expressions face perception development emoticon http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0301006617709674 doi:10.1177/0301006617709674 doi:10.1177/0301006617709674 |
| spellingShingle | emotion facial expressions face perception development emoticon Lang, Kathleen Anthoney, Laura Mitchell, Peter Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| title | Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| title_full | Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| title_fullStr | Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| title_short | Seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| title_sort | seven- to 11-year-olds’ developing ability to recognize natural facial expressions of basic emotions |
| topic | emotion facial expressions face perception development emoticon |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42411/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42411/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42411/ |