The development of emotion-processing in children: effects of age, emotion, and intensity

The effects of verbal disgust- and threat-related information about novel animals on disgust and fear beliefs and avoidance in children

Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the etiology of certain types of specific phobias, like animal phobias. Two experiments were conducted in which 9- to 14-year-old children were exposed to disgust-related, cleanliness-related, and threat-related information about unknown animals. It was investigated to what extent these types of information influenced children's fear beliefs, feelings of disgust, and avoidance behavior in relation to the animals. Most important, results suggested a bidirectional relationship between disgust and fear. That is, disgust-related information was found to promote fear beliefs, and conversely threat-related information enhanced feelings of disgust. Repercussions of these findings for the role of disgust in the development and maintenance of anxiety pathology are discussed.

Attention, response inhibition, and face-information processing in children: the role of task characteristics, age, and gender

The aim of the study was to assess: (a) developmental changes in attention, response inhibition, and face-information processing using the new Balloons task and (b) to evaluate the association between measures derived from the task with reported behavior problems. One hundred and thirty-four typically developing children (53 boys and 81 girls) were tested with the Balloons. Their parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Our results validate the Balloons as a reliable task with significant effects of manipulations in difficulty level (speed, processing load, and processing type). The results suggest that face-information processing undergoes significant changes during the age period between 7 and 13 years with significant gender differences. Modest but significant correlations were found between the Balloons' measures and behavior problems.

Emotion identification in girls at high risk for depression

BACKGROUND

Children of depressed mothers are themselves at elevated risk for developing a depressive disorder. We have little understanding, however, of the specific factors that contribute to this increased risk. This study investigated whether never-disordered daughters whose mothers have experienced recurrent episodes of depression during their daughters' lifetime differ from never-disordered daughters of never-disordered mothers in their processing of facial expressions of emotion.

METHOD

Following a negative mood induction, daughters completed an emotion identification task in which they watched faces slowly change from a neutral to a full-intensity happy, sad, or angry expression. We assessed both the intensity that was required to accurately identify the emotion being expressed and errors in emotion identification.

RESULTS

Daughters of depressed mothers required greater intensity than did daughters of control mothers to accurately identify sad facial expressions; they also made significantly more errors identifying angry expressions.

CONCLUSION

Cognitive biases may increase vulnerability for the onset of disorders and should be considered in early intervention and prevention efforts.

Enhancing emotion recognition in children with autism spectrum conditions: an intervention using animated vehicles with real emotional faces

This study evaluated The Transporters, an animated series designed to enhance emotion comprehension in children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). n = 20 children with ASC (aged 4-7) watched The Transporters everyday for 4 weeks. Participants were tested before and after intervention on emotional vocabulary and emotion recognition at three levels of generalization. Two matched control groups of children (ASC group, n = 18 and typically developing group, n = 18) were also assessed twice without any intervention. The intervention group improved significantly more than the clinical control group on all task levels, performing comparably to typical controls at Time 2. We conclude that using The Transporters significantly improves emotion recognition in children with ASC. Future research should evaluate the series' effectiveness with lower-functioning individuals.

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.

Social brain development and the affective consequences of ostracism in adolescence

Recent structural and functional imaging studies have provided evidence for continued development of brain regions involved in social cognition during adolescence. In this paper, we review this rapidly expanding area of neuroscience and describe models of neurocognitive development that have emerged recently. One implication of these models is that neural development underlies commonly observed adolescent phenomena such as susceptibility to peer influence and sensitivity to peer rejection. Experimental behavioural evidence of rejection sensitivity in adolescence is currently sparse. Here, we describe a study that directly compared the affective consequences of an experimental ostracism manipulation (Cyberball) in female adolescents and adults. The ostracism condition led to significantly greater affective consequences in the adolescents compared with adults. This suggests that the ability to regulate distress resulting from ostracism continues to develop between adolescence and adulthood. The results are discussed in the context of models of neurocognitive development.

[Social cognition in autism. A survey of functional imaging studies]

Autism spectrum disorders (autism, Asperger's syndrome, high-functioning autism) are characterized by a common pattern of marked impairments in social interactions. Deficits have been described in face processing, facial emotion recognition, and social attribution ("theory of mind") or generally speaking in social cognition. Some studies have shown that these impairments are already detectable in early childhood, leading to the assumption that the underlying cause is an early disruption of neuronal development. Accordingly, neuroimaging data have revealed alterations of structure and function in the brains of autistic children, adolescents, and adults. The present review gives a systematic overview of the existing literature on functional imaging studies using experimental paradigms of social cognition, i.e. face discrimination, facial emotion recognition, and theory of mind in autistic disorders.

Impact of familiarity upon children's developing facial expression recognition

BACKGROUND

The impact of personal familiarity upon children's developing emotion-processing has been largely ignored in previous research, yet may prove particularly important given the emotional salience of such stimuli and children's greater exposure to familiar others compared to strangers. We examined the impact of personal familiarity upon developing facial expression recognition (FER).

METHODS

Participants included 153 children, 4-15 years old. We employed dynamic expressions of five emotions (happy, sad, anger, fear, disgust), posed by familiar (parents, teachers) and unfamiliar identities.

RESULTS

Accuracy improved with age for recognising sad and fear expressions, but not anger. Children tended to correctly recognise happiness and fear at lower intensities. The impact of familiarity on FER depended on emotion-category. Familiarity did not affect recognition of sad expressions, but children were less accurate at recognising anger, fear, and disgust in familiar individuals compared to strangers.

CONCLUSION

Personal familiarity may exert a distracting effect on children's performance. Findings highlight the importance of incorporating different emotion-categories and familiarity when examining the development of FER. Clinical implications are discussed.