Recognition of emotional facial expression of people of different ages by children 3-5 years old
Psychology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-4-575-585Keywords:
emotion recognition, facial expression, social cognition, mental model, misunderstanding, preschool ageAbstract
The role of model age in the success of preschoolers in recognizing the emotional expression of peers, adolescents, adults, and the elderly was studied. The aim of the study was to reveal the relationship between the success of recognizing the emotions of people of different ages and the level of development of the mental model as the ability to understand the mental states of other people, including through external behavioral manifestations. To assess the success of recognizing the emotions of people of different ages, the authors created a database of photographs of people in four age groups; the photographs demonstrated models of joy, sadness, fear, and anger. In each series, children were presented with photographs of one person and tasked to answer whether the person in the image was joyful, sad, frightened, or angry. Mental model development was assessed using Level 1 and Level 2 visual perspective comprehension tasks, source of knowledge, and misconceptions. Sixty 3- and 5-year-old children attending kindergartens in Moscow participated in the study. In order to process the data obtained, U-criterion, Z-criterion, Spearman correlation coefficient were used. The results of the study demonstrated age dynamics in the recognition of basic emotions by preschool children and the relationship of emotion recognition and mental model. No significant preferences in emotion recognition of own age group were found, but five-year-old children were better at emotion recognition by facial expression of children's faces (peers and adolescents) than adults and older adults. Interpretation of the results suggests a possible influence of peer interaction experience on recognition.References
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