The role of person familiarity in young infants' perception of emotional expressions

This research investigated the role of person familiarity in the ability of 3.5-month-old infants to recognize emotional expressions. Infants (N = 72) were presented simultaneously with two filmed facial expressions, happy and sad, accompanied by a single vocal expression that was concordant with one of the two facial expressions. Infants' looking preferences and facial expressions were coded. Results indicated that when the emotional expressions were portrayed by each infant's own mother, infants looked significantly longer toward the facial expressions that were accompanied by affectively matching vocal expressions. Infants who were presented with emotional expressions of an unfamiliar woman did not. Even when a brief delay was inserted between the presentation of facial and vocal expressions, infants who were presented with emotional expressions of their own mothers looked longer at the facial expression that was sound specified, indicating that some factor other than temporal synchrony guided their looking preferences. When infants viewed the films of their own mothers, they were more interactive and expressed more positive and less negative affect. Moreover, infants produced a greater number of full and bright smiles when the sound-specified emotion was "happy," and particularly when they viewed the happy expressions of their own mothers. The average duration of negative affect was significantly longer for infants who observed the unfamiliar woman than for those who observed their own mothers. These results show that when more contextual information-that is, person familiarity-was available, infants as young as 3.5 months of age recognized happy and sad expressions. These findings suggest that in the early stages of development, infants are sensitive to contextual information that potentially facilitates some of the meaning of others' emotional expressions.     

Recognition of emotions in facial expressions by emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed children

Groups of emotionally disturbed and nondisturbed elementary and junior high subjects were tested for ability to recognize primary emotions in facial expressions. Emotionally disturbed groups were found to be significantly less proficient both for overall emotion recognition ability and for several individual emotions. On the whole, the junior high groups were found to be better identifiers of emotion than the younger groups, but precise relationships between emotion recognition ability and age and also intelligence were unclear. Several possible interpretations of these findings and their implications for educational planning are discussed, and suggestions for additional research are presented.     

Generalized Discrimination of Positive Facial Expressions by Seven- and Ten-Month-Old Infants

The ability of 7- and 10-month-old infants to generalize their discrimination of facial expressions lacking featural consistency was investigated in a series of 4 experiments. Infants were habituated to models posing either prototypically positive displays (e.g., happy expressions) or positive expression blends (e.g., mock surprise). They were then tested for their ability to recognize a positive expression on the face of a novel model and to discriminate positive and negative facial expressions. Only in Experiment 1, in which infants were familiarized to a mix of happy and surprised facial expressions, did 10-month-olds demonstrate generalized discrimination of positive affect. When positive blends or happy expressions alone served as familiarization stimuli, both 7- and 10-month-old infants failed to dishabituate to a change in affective tone. 7-month-olds, in particular, showed consistent recovery of looking to the introduction of novel models. The pattern of results suggests that it is not until sometime after 7 months of age that dependence on the presence of expression-specific features for affect recognition and discrimination diminishes. By 10 months of age, however, infants are beginning to recognize the affective similarity of familiar positive facial expressions.     

自我面孔识别的研究进展

自我面孔识别是个体对自己面孔的认知,它是个体自我发展的基础.自我面孔识别是自我研究的重要组成部分.近年来,自我面孔识别的研究取得很大进展,在种系发生、人类个体发展、神经机制等方面取得了丰硕的研究成果,特别是无损伤性的认知神经科学手段的运用更促进了这一领域的发展.了解自我面孔识别的研究成果对我们进一步了解一般面孔识别、心理理论以及自我发展等具有重要意义.该领域的研究进展将为深入了解自我的形成机理提供一个新的探视"窗口".     

基于2DPCA补空间的特定人与非特定人的表情识别

研究表明,对一种识别有利的信息有可能反而对其他识别任务造成干扰,表情识别需要利用表示各种表情之间差异的信息.针对特定人及非特定人的7种基本表情.提出基于二维主元分析(Two-Dimensional Principle Analysis,2DPCA)补空间的表情识别算法.基于CED-WYU(1.0)及JAFFE两个表情数据库的实验结果表明,2DPCA补空间算法针对特定人与非特定人的表情识别率可达100%,高于2DPCA算法.     

表象的口语表述在幼儿认知活动中的作用

心理学研究表明,人的智力水平的80%是在7岁前开发完成的,幼儿阶段的教育自然也就成了人生的关键,幼儿(3-6岁)阶段的思维特点证明,幼儿是以动作方式来认识客观事物的,此时,如何使幼儿贮备丰富、生动、清晰的表象,并促进幼儿观察、注意、记忆、想象、思维等心理活动的发展,是幼儿教育的关键。     

The Development of Emotion Recognition in Individuals With Autism

Emotion recognition was investigated in typically developing individuals and individuals with autism. Experiment 1 tested children (5–7 years, n  = 37) with brief video displays of facial expressions that varied in subtlety. Children with autism performed worse than the control children. In Experiment 2, 3 age groups (8–12 years, n  = 49; 13–17 years, n  = 49; and adults n  = 45) were tested on the same stimuli. Whereas the performance of control individuals was best in the adult group, the performance of individuals with autism was similar in all age groups. Results are discussed with respect to underlying cognitive processes that may be affecting the development of emotion recognition in individuals with autism.     

Beyond the Face: An Empirical Study of Infant Affective Configurations of Facial, Vocal, Gestural, and Regulatory Behaviors

This article evaluates the extent to which infants' expressive modalities of face, gaze, voice, gesture, and posture form coherent affective configurations and whether these configurations are related to specific interactive contexts. 50 6-month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped in Tronick's Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm. The infants' gaze, voice, gestures, self-regulatory, and withdrawal behaviors were coded with the Infant Regulatory Scoring System (IRSS). The infants' facial expressions were coded with Izard's AFFEX system. Contingency analyses of IRSS behaviors and AFFEX expressions revealed 4 distinct affective configurations: Social Engagement, Object Engagement, Passive Withdrawal, and Active Protest. These affective configurations were differentially distributed among the different interactive contexts of the Face-to-Face Still-Face Paradigm. It is suggested that behaviors and facial expressions are fundamental expressive units flexibly organized into configurations that convey messages about the infant's internal state and intentions. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the basic units of the infant's experience are these distinct affective configurations of emotion and behavior.     

Stimulus gender and emotional difficulty level: their effect on recognition of facial expressions of affect in children with and without LD

The ability to recognize emotions that were easily identifiable and those that were more difficult to identify, as expressed by male and female faces, was studied in 48 nondisabled children and 76 children with learning disabilities (LD) ages 9 through 12. On the basis of their performance on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test and the Benton Visual Retention Test, the LD group was divided into three subgroups: those with verbal (VD), nonverbal (NVD), and both verbal and nonverbal (BD) deficits. A shortened version of Ekman and Friesen's Pictures of Facial Affect, including pictures of both men and women, was the measure of ability to identify facial expressions of affect. Children of both genders in all three groups of children with LD, as well as their normally achieving peers, were more accurate in identifying expressions of affect from female faces, notwithstanding differences in sensitivity to such emotional communication in favor of the nondisabled and VD groups. However, a significant interaction was found between gender and emotional recognition difficulty level, with female faces being more expressive for emotions that were difficult to recognize.     

Facial micro-expression states as an indicator for conceptual change in students' understanding of air pressure and boiling points

Utilizing facial recognition technology, the current study has attempted to predict the likelihood of student conceptual change with decision tree models based on the facial micro-expression states (FMES) students exhibited when they experience conceptual conflict. While conceptual change through conceptual conflicts in science education is a well-studied field, there is little research done on conceptual change through conceptual conflict in terms of students' facial expressions. As facial expressions are one of the most direct and immediate responses one can get during instruction and that facial expressions are often representations student's emotions, a link between students' FMES and learning was explored. Facial data was collected from 90 tenth graders. Only data from the 72 students who made incorrect predictions were analyzed in this study. The concept taught was the relationship between boiling point and air pressure. Through facial recognition software analysis and decision tree models, the current study found Surprised, Sad and Disgusted to be key FMES that could be used to predict student conceptual change in a conceptual conflict-based scenario.     

学校恐惧倾向儿童的情绪识别能力

本研究采用内隐联想测试来区分儿童是否具有学校恐惧倾向,进而考察他们的情绪识别能力.本研究采用内隐联想测试和学校恐惧分量表将儿童分组,并使用表情判断任务测试表情识别能力.结果表明,使用内隐联想测验分组的儿童在学校恐惧分量表的得分上有显著差异.具有学校恐惧倾向的儿童对恐惧表情的识别正确率显著低于普通儿童,对悲伤面孔的反应时也显著长于普通儿童.因此可以得出如下结论:学校恐惧倾向儿童在表情识别上与普通儿童存在差异.     

Object naming ability of adults with written language difficulties

Several studies have observed that school-aged, reading-disabled children have object-naming problems. In addition, significant positive relationships between object-naming ability and reading and spelling skills have been observed for this population. The co-occurrence of these problems has been explained by common underlying phonological deficiencies. Because written language problems can persist beyond the school-aged years, the purpose of this study was to examine object-naming ability and the relationship between object naming and written language of adults. Twenty-two adults, half with written language difficulties and half without, performed four tasks: object naming, object recognition, reading, and spelling. Significant positive relationships were obtained between object-naming ability and reading ability, object-naming ability and spelling performance, and reading and spelling performance. In addition to phonological deficiencies, the results indicated that adult poor readers and spellers lack knowledge of the orthographic structure of words. These findings suggest that problems underlying object naming and written language do not resolve with cognitive maturation or additional years of experience with language and should be addressed in the early school-aged years. This research was funded by Grant A2008 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the second author.     

Inferring Beliefs and Desires From Emotional Reactions to Anticipated and Observed Events

Researchers have long been interested in the relation between emotion understanding and theory of mind. This study investigates a cue to mental states that has rarely been investigated: the dynamics of valenced emotional expressions. When the valence of a character's facial expression was stable between an expected and observed outcome, children (N = 122; M = 5.0 years) recovered the character's desires but did not consistently recover her beliefs. When the valence changed, older but not younger children recovered both the characters’ beliefs and desires. In contrast, adults jointly recovered agents’ beliefs and desires in all conditions. These results suggest that the ability to infer mental states from the dynamics of emotional expressions develops gradually through early and middle childhood.     

Measuring Cognitive Engagement With Self-Report Scales: Reflections From Over 20 Years of Research

Research spanning 20 years is reviewed as it relates to the measurement of cognitive engagement using self-report scales. The author's research program is at the forefront of the review, although the review is couched within the broader context of the research on motivation and cognitive engagement that began in the early 1990s. The theoretical origins of self-report instruments are examined, along with the early measurement findings and struggles. Research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics contexts are highlighted. The author concludes that self-report data have made significant and important contributions to the understanding of motivation and cognitive engagement. However, the evidence also suggests a need to develop and use multiple approaches to measuring engagement in academic work rather than rely only on self-report instruments. Some alternatives to self-report measures are suggested here and throughout this issue.     

运用"想法解读"理论提高孤独症学生对他人情绪辨别能力的个案研究

孤独症是一种脑功能障碍引起的长期发展障碍的综合症,它影响着儿童很多方面的能力和表现,尤其是在社会交往和沟通方面的发展,表现出在与人相处过程中不能作出适当的反应,对与交往的人的特点与个性也不能清楚地进行判断。本文采用对一名孤独症儿童个案研究方法,通过对人物表情、卡通图片表情、创设不同情境推断人物可能的情绪反应等训练,提高孤独症学生对他人情绪的辨别力。结果显示:通过训练该名儿童在理解图中处境所描写的人物关系和其中人物蕴涵的情绪以及推断人物的情绪反应及感受上有所提高。     

Training individuals to label nonverbal facial cues

In recent years, a considerable amount of research on nonverbal behavior has focused on identifying facial cues of various emotions. This study attempted to examine the effects of training individuals to accurately label facial affects of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust, and neutral. The treatment period extended over three, one-hour group presentations based on Ekman and Friesen's (1975) model of training individuals to accurately label emotions from facial expressions. The posttest demonstrated that the experimental group significantly improved its ability to accurately label facial affect following the training program.     

Judging who knows best about yourself: developmental change in citing the self across middle childhood

Rosenberg (1979) reported that children under the age of 11 do not recognize that they are the authority on their own self-knowledge, placing authority instead with adults. However, results from Studies 1 and 2, in which 86 and 47 children, respectively, from predominantly White low- to middle-income communities participated, suggest that the shift from reliance on adults to self occurs between the ages of 5 and 10 years. The studies also demonstrate parallel development in judging own and other people's self-knowledge. Study 3, in which 96 children from predominantly White low- to middle-income communities participated, shows the beginnings of sophisticated understanding in children aged 5 to 7 years, who differentiate between information about the self that is best judged by the self and information that can be judged by others. Suggestions are made as to why this aspect of understanding minds develops later than other aspects of psychological understanding.     

中国共产党执政方式的历史演变探究

改革和完善党的执政方式是我国政治体制改革的重要任务之一,坚持科学执政、民主执政、依法执政,不断完善党的领导方式和执政方式。通过对中国共产党由局部执政到全国范围执政这一历程中关于执政方式问题的探索,我们认识到新形势下中国共产党按照什么样的方式执政,关系到中国社会主义事业的兴衰成败,也关系到中国共产党的执政地位能否巩固和社会主义国家能否长治久安。     

Young Children's Emotion Comprehension and Theory of Mind Understanding

Research Findings: The present study investigated the relation between theory of mind (ToM) and emotion understanding among 78 children 4½ to 6½ years old (35 boys, 43 girls). ToM understanding was assessed using ignorance and false belief questions within an emotion-understanding task that evaluated children's abilities to recognize facial expressions and identify the external causes of emotions (happy, sad, angry, scared, and surprised), understand the role of beliefs and desires in emotion, and comprehend felt versus expressed emotions. Results indicated that children's understanding of the external causes of emotion, hidden emotions, and a reminder's influence on emotions improved with age and that children's understanding of the external causes of emotion related to ToM understanding. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest that programs that seek to promote children's socioemotional awareness could benefit from encouraging the development of children's understanding of the external causes of emotions to improve overall social cognition.     

Signal functions of infant facial expression and gaze direction during mother-infant face-to-face play

Recent studies of adult-infant interaction suggest that adults modify their behavior in order to change or maintain an infant's state of arousal. We pursued this question by asking whether mothers modify their actions in response to infant facial expression or gaze direction. Subjects were 7 mother-infant (4--8 month old) pairs in which mothers were instructed to bet their babies to smile. From these filmed interactions the infant's mouth, gaze, and head direction were coded, and the mother's movements were coded as single acts or bouts. Results of an exploratory analysis indicate that, when trying to get a baby to smile using tactile and kinesthetic stimulation, mothers tend to respond to negative changes of affect and attention by changing the content of their actions, taking a long pause, or decreasing the number of acts in a bout.