Article Version of Record

Facial expressions and ability to recognize emotions from eyes or mouth in children

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Guarnera, Maria
Hichy, Zira
Cascio, Maura I.
Carrubba, Stefano

Abstract / Description

This research aims to contribute to the literature on the ability to recognize anger, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust and neutral emotions from facial information. By investigating children’s performance in detecting these emotions from a specific face region, we were interested to know whether children would show differences in recognizing these expressions from the upper or lower face, and if any difference between specific facial regions depended on the emotion in question. For this purpose, a group of 6-7 year-old children was selected. Participants were asked to recognize emotions by using a labeling task with three stimulus types (region of the eyes, of the mouth, and full face). The findings seem to indicate that children correctly recognize basic facial expressions when pictures represent the whole face, except for a neutral expression, which was recognized from the mouth, and sadness, which was recognized from the eyes. Children are also able to identify anger from the eyes as well as from the whole face. With respect to gender differences, there is no female advantage in emotional recognition. The results indicate a significant interaction ‘gender x face region’ only for anger and neutral emotions.

Keyword(s)

facial expressions emotions children recognizing from eyes recognizing from mouth labeling task

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2015-05-29

Journal title

Europe's Journal of Psychology

Volume

11

Issue

2

Page numbers

183–196

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Guarnera, M., Hichy, Z., Cascio, M. I., & Carrubba, S. (2015). Facial expressions and ability to recognize emotions from eyes or mouth in children. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 11(2), 183–196. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i2.890
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Guarnera, Maria
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Hichy, Zira
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Cascio, Maura I.
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Carrubba, Stefano
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-21T09:59:22Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-21T09:59:22Z
  • Date of first publication
    2015-05-29
  • Abstract / Description
    This research aims to contribute to the literature on the ability to recognize anger, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust and neutral emotions from facial information. By investigating children’s performance in detecting these emotions from a specific face region, we were interested to know whether children would show differences in recognizing these expressions from the upper or lower face, and if any difference between specific facial regions depended on the emotion in question. For this purpose, a group of 6-7 year-old children was selected. Participants were asked to recognize emotions by using a labeling task with three stimulus types (region of the eyes, of the mouth, and full face). The findings seem to indicate that children correctly recognize basic facial expressions when pictures represent the whole face, except for a neutral expression, which was recognized from the mouth, and sadness, which was recognized from the eyes. Children are also able to identify anger from the eyes as well as from the whole face. With respect to gender differences, there is no female advantage in emotional recognition. The results indicate a significant interaction ‘gender x face region’ only for anger and neutral emotions.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Guarnera, M., Hichy, Z., Cascio, M. I., & Carrubba, S. (2015). Facial expressions and ability to recognize emotions from eyes or mouth in children. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 11(2), 183–196. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i2.890
  • ISSN
    1841-0413
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/947
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1139
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v11i2.890
  • Keyword(s)
    facial expressions
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    emotions
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    children
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    recognizing from eyes
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    recognizing from mouth
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    labeling task
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Facial expressions and ability to recognize emotions from eyes or mouth in children
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    2
  • Journal title
    Europe's Journal of Psychology
  • Page numbers
    183–196
  • Volume
    11
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record