ВЕСТНИК ПЕРМСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА. ФИЛОСОФИЯ. ПСИХОЛОГИЯ. СОЦИОЛОГИЯ

VESTNIK PERMSKOGO UNIVERSITETA. SERIYA FILOSOFIA PSIKHOLOGIYA SOTSIOLOGIYA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-4-575-585

Recognition by children of 3–5 years of emotional face expression of people of different age

Evgeniya I. Lebedeva
Ph.D. in Psychology, Senior Researcher
of the Laboratory of Developmental Psychology
of the Subject in the Normal and Post-traumatic States

Institute of Psychology of Russian Academy of Sciences,
13, Yaroslavskaya st., Moscow, 129366, Russia;
e-mail: evlebedeva@yandex.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0888-8273

There was studied the role of the model’s age in the successful recognition of emotional expression in peers, adolescents, adults and the elderly by preschoolers. The study aimed to identify the relationship between the successful recognition of emotions in people of different ages and the development of the theory of mind as the ability to understand mental states of other people, including by the external manifestations in their behavior. To assess the performance of recognition, there was created a database of photographs of people from four age groups in which the models showed happiness, sadness, fear and anger. In each series, children were given photographs of one person, and their task was to answer whether the person in the picture was joyful, sad, scared, or angry. The development of the theory of mind ability was evaluated with the help of tests showing understanding of the first and second level visual perspectives, a source of knowledge and false beliefs. The study involved 60 three- and five-year-old children attending kindergartens in Moscow. In order to process the obtained data, the U-criterion, the Z-criterion and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used. The results of the study demonstrated age-related dynamics in the recognition of basic emotions by children of preschool age and the relationship between the emotion recognition and the theory of mind. No significant preferences were found in recognizing the emotions of their own age group; however, five-year-old children were better at recognizing emotions by the facial expression on children’s faces (peers and adolescents) than those of adults and older people. Interpretation of the results assumes possible impact of interaction experience with peers.

Keywords: emotion recognition, facial expression, social cognition, theory of mind, understanding of false beliefs, preschool age.

References

Anastasi, J.S. and Rhodes, M.G. (2005). An own-age bias in face recognition for children and older adults. Psychologic Bulletin and Review. . Vol. 12, iss. 6, pp. 1043–1047. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206441

Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A.M. and Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a «theory of mind»? Cognition. Vol. 21, iss. 1, pp. 37–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(85)90022-8

Bernstein, M.J., Young, S.G. and Hugenberg, K. (2007). The cross-category effect: Mere social categorization is sufficient to elicit an own-group bias in face recognition. Psychological Science. Vol. 18, iss. 8, pp. 706–712. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01964.x

Campbell, A., Murray, J.E., Atkinson, L. and Ruffman, T. (2015). Face age and eye gaze influence older adults’ emotion recognition. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. Vol. 72, iss. 4, pp. 633–636. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbv114

Chronaki, G., Hadwin, J.A., Garner, M. et al. (2015). The development of emotion recognition from facial expressions and non-linguistic vocalizations during childhood. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. Vol. 33, iss. 2, pp. 218–236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.12075

Dennett, D. (1987). The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 400 p.

De Sonneville, L.M.J., Verschoor, C.A., Njiokiktjien, C., et al. (2002). Facial identity and facial emotions: speed, accuracy, and processing strategies in children and adults. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. Vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 200–213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1076/jcen.24.2.200.989

Doan, S.N. and Wang, Q. (2010). Maternal discussions of mental states and behaviors: Relations to emotion situation knowledge in European American and immigrant Chinese children. Child Development. Vol. 81, iss. 5, pp. 1490–1503. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01487.x

Ekman, P. (2010). Psikhologiya emotsiy, per. s angl. [Emotions revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional life, trans. from Eng.]. Saint Petersburg: Peter Publ., 336 p.

Flavell, J.H. (2000). Development of children’s knowledge about the mental world. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Vol. 24, iss. 1, pp. 15–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/016502500383421

Fölster, M., Hess, U. and Werheid, K. (2014). Facial age affects emotional expression decoding. Frontiers in Psychology. Vol. 5. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00030/full (accessed 15.09.2019).DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00030

Gao, X. and Maurer, D. (2010). A happy story: Developmental changes in children’s sensitivity to facial expressions of varying intensities. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Vol. 107, iss. 2, pp. 67–86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.05.003

Grazzani, I., Ornaghi, V., Conte, E. et al. (2018). The relation between emotion understanding and theory of mind in children aged 3 to 8: The key role of language. Frontiers in psychology. Vol. 9. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00724/full (accessed 15.09.2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00724

Griffiths, S. Penton-Voak, I.S., Jarrold, C. and Munafò, M.R. (2015). No own-age advantage in children’s recognition of emotion on prototypical faces of different ages. PLOS ONE. Vol. 10, iss. 6. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125256 (accessed 15.09.2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125256

Hachaturova, A.V. and Sergienko, E.A. (2009). Stanovlenie modeli psikhicheskogo v usloviyakh semeynoy deprivatsii [Formation of theory of mind in conditions of family deprivation]. Psikhologiya. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki [Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics]. Vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 161–172.

Harris, P.L., Johnson, C.N., Hutton, D. et al. (1989). Young children’s theory of mind and emotion. Cognition and Emotion. Vol. 3, iss. 4, pp. 379–400. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699938908412713

Herba, C. and Phillips, M. (2004). Development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence: Behavioral and neurological perspectives. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Vol. 45, iss. 7, pp. 1185–1198. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00316.x

Hills, P.J. and Lewis, M.B. (2011). Rapid communication: the own-age faces recognition bias in children and adults. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Vol. 64, iss. 1, pp. 17–23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2010.537926

Houstis, O. and Kiliaridis, S. (2009). Gender and age differences in facial expressions. European Journal of Orthodontics. Vol. 31, iss. 5, pp. 459–466 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/ejo/cjp019

Koval, Yu.B. and Labunskaya, V.A. (2014). Vliyanie genderno-vozrastnykh kharakteristik modeley litsevoy ekspressii na uspeshnost’ ikh raspoznaniya doshkol’nikami [The influence of gender-age characteristics of facial expression models on the success of their recognition by preschoolers]. Severo-Kavkazskiy psikhologicheskiy vestnik [North Caucasian Psychological Bulletin]. Vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 27–33.

Kuhnert, R.L., Begeer, S., Fink, E. and de Rosnay, M. (2017). Gender-differentiated effects of theory of mind, emotion understanding, and social preference on prosocial behavior development: A longitudinal study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Vol. 154, pp. 13–27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.10.001

LaBounty, J., Wellman, H.M., Olson, S. et al. (2008). Mothers and fathers use of internal state talk with their young children. Social Development. Vol. 17, iss. 4, pp. 757–775. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00450.x

Listik E.M. (2008). Issledovanie razvitiya sposobnosti k raspoznavaniyu emociy po vyrazheniyu litsa u detey starshego doshkol’nogo vozrasta [A study of the development of the ability to recognize emotions by facial expression in children of preschool age]. Vestnik MGPU. Seriya «Pedagogika i psikhologiya» [Vestnik of Moscow City University. Series «Pedagogy and Psychology»]. No. 2, pp. 68–81.

Meissner, C.A. and Brigham, J.C. (2001). Thirty years of investigating the own-race bias in memory for faces: A meta-analytic review. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. Vol. 7, iss. 1, pp. 3–35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037//1076-8971.7.1.3

Meltzoff, A.N. and Moore, M.K. (1983). Newborn infants imitate adult facial gestures. Child Development. Vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 702–709. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1130058

Peterson, C. and Slaughter, V. (2003). Opening windows into the mind: Mothers’ preferences for mental state explanations and children’s theory of mind. Cognitive Development. Vol. 18, iss. 3, pp. 399–429. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(03)00041-8

Picci, G. and Scherf, K.S. (2016). From caregivers to peers: puberty shapes human face perception. Psychological Science. Vol. 27, iss. 11, pp. 1461–1473. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616663142

Prusakova, O.A. and Sergienko, E.A. (2006). Ponimanie emotsiy det’mi doshkol’nogo vozrasta [Emotion sensing by preschool children]. Voprosy psikhologii. No. 4, pp. 24–36.

Ruffman, T., Slade, L. and Crowe, E. (2002). The relation between children’s and mothers’ mental state language and theory-of-mind understanding. Child Development. Vol. 73, iss. 3, pp. 734–751. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00435

Sergienko, E.A., Lebedeva, E.I. and Prusakova, O.A. (2009). Model’ psikhicheskogo v ontogeneze cheloveka [Theory of mind in human ontogenesis]. Moscow: IP RAS Publ., 415 p.

Sternglanz, R.W. and DePaulo, B.M. (2004). Reading nonverbal cues to emotions: The advantages and liabilities of relationship closeness. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. Vol. 28, iss. 4, pp. 245–266. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-004-4158-7

Van der Meulen, A., Roerig, S., de Ruyter, D. et al. (2017). A comparison of children’s ability to read children’s and adults’ mental states in an adaptation of the reading the mind in the eyes task. Frontiers in Psychology. Vol. 8. Available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00594/full (accessed 15.09.2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00594

Weimer, A.A., Sallquist, J. and Bolnick, R R. (2012). Young children’s emotion comprehension and theory of mind understanding. Early Education and Development. Vol. 23, iss. 3, pp. 280–301. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2010.517694

Received 31.10.2019

 

 

For citation:

Lebedeva E.I. [Recognition by children of 3–5 years of emotional face expression of people of different age]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofia. Psihologia. Sociologia [Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology»], 2019, issue 4, pp. 575–585 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-4-575-585