| Publications [#47944] of Laura A Thomas
search PubMed.Journal Articles
- Thomas, L.A., De Bellis, M.D., Graham, R., & LaBar, K.S. (2007).
Development of emotional facial recognition in late childhood and adolescence. Developmental Science, 10(5), 547-558. [x]
(last updated on 2007/10/06)
Abstract: The ability to interpret emotions in facial expressions is crucial for social functioning across the lifespan. Facial expression
recognition develops rapidly during infancy and improves with age during the preschool years. However, the developmental trajectory
from late childhood to adulthood is less clear. We tested older children, adolescents and adults on a two-alternative
forced-choice discrimination task using morphed faces that varied in emotional content. Actors appeared to pose expressions
that changed incrementally along three progressions: neutral-to-fear, neutral-to-anger, and fear-to-anger. Across all three morph
types, adults displayed more sensitivity to subtle changes in emotional expression than children and adolescents. Fear morphs
and fear-to-anger blends showed a linear developmental trajectory, whereas anger morphs showed a quadratic trend, increasing
sharply from adolescents to adults. The results provide evidence for late developmental changes in emotional expression recognitionwith some specificity in the time course for distinct emotions.
|