Recognizing facial expressions of emotion in infancy: A replication and extension

Abstract

Infants may recognize facial expressions of emotion more readily when familiar faces express the emotions. Studies 1 and 2 investigated whether familiarity influences two metrics of emotion processing: Categorization and spontaneous preference. In Study 1 (n = 32), we replicated previous findings showing an asymmetrical pattern of categorization of happy and fearful faces in 6.5-month-old infants, and extended these findings by demonstrating that infants' categorization did not differ when emotions were expressed by familiar (i.e., caregiver) faces. In Study 2 (n = 34), we replicated the spontaneous preference for fearful over happy expressions in 6.5-month-old infants, and extended these findings by demonstrating that the spontaneous preference for fear was also present for familiar faces. Thus, infants' performance on two metrics of emotion processing did not differ depending on face familiarity.

Do Preverbal Infants Understand Discrete Facial Expressions of Emotion?

“…A. Nelson & Dolgin, 1985;C. A. Nelson et al, 1979;Safar & Moulson, 2017). It remains unclear, however, whether 3-to 12-month-olds can differentiate a category of happiness from novel sad expressions at test (A.…”

“…With few exceptions (Grossmann, Striano, & Friederici, 2007; LaBarbera, Izard, Vietze, & Parisi, 1976), 5- to 14-month-olds do not have a visual preference for angry over happy expressions (e.g., Krol, Monakhov, Lai, Ebstein, & Grossmann, 2015; LoBue & DeLoache, 2010). On the other hand, by 7 months, infants prefer fearful to happy expressions (e.g., Geangu et al, 2016; Krol et al, 2015; LoBue & DeLoache, 2010; Miguel, McCormick, Westerlund, & Nelson, 2019; Safar & Moulson, 2017).…”

“…A. Nelson & Dolgin, 1985; C. A. Nelson et al, 1979; Safar & Moulson, 2017; but see Cong et al, 2018) or sad expressions (Lee et al, 2015; Walker-Andrews et al, 2011) when presented with happy expressions at test.…”

The Bayesian‐Laplacian brain

“…There has been some controversy in the past over this, but current evidence indicates that there is agreement between different cultures, even those that have not come in contact with each other, about the basic emotions underlying given facial expressions, while there may be some differences regarding the intensity of the emotion conveyed by a given facial expression (Ekman, ; Ekman et al., ; Elfenbein & Ambady, ). Evidence suggests that a seven‐month‐old infant has the capacity to recognize facial expressions; given the universality of the recognition, it must be presumed that there is an early interplay here which generates β priors according to inherited concepts, possibly augmented by experience and learning, including interacting with family members and others (Nelson & De Haan, ; Safar & Moulson, ). This capacity to categorize faces in particular ways—provided they have the significant configuration that constitutes a β prior for a face—may thus be compared to the example of colour given above.…”

Experience And Emotional Face Processing In Infancy

“…Infants demonstrated categorization after habituation to happy facial expressions (signaled by increased looking at the fearful face during test), whereas infants did not demonstrate categorization after habituation to fearful facial expressions (no increased looking at the happy face during test). This asymmetrical pattern of results has been documented several times (Kotsoni, de Haan, & Johnson, 2001;Ludemann & Nelson, 1988;Nelson & Dolgin, 1985;Nelson et al, 1979;Safar & Moulson, 2017), and has been interpreted as potentially due to a spontaneous preference for fear interfering with the expected novelty preference for the happy face (Ludemann & Nelson, 1988;Nelson & Dolgin, 1985).…”