Positive, but not negative, facial expressions facilitate 3-month-olds’ recognition of an individual face

The current study examined whether and how the presence of a positive or a negative emotional expression may affect the face recognition process at 3 months of age. Using a familiarization procedure, Experiment 1 demonstrated that positive (i.e., happiness), but not negative (i.e., fear and anger) f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of behavioral development 2013-03, Vol.37 (2), p.137-142
Main Authors: Brenna, Viola, Proietti, Valentina, Montirosso, Rosario, Turati, Chiara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Cognitive Ability
Emotion recognition
Emotional Response
Emotions
Face
Face recognition
Faces
Facial expressions
Fear
Foreign Countries
Human Body
Identity
Infants
Italy (Milan)
Pattern recognition
Psychological Patterns
Recognition (Psychology)
Statistical Analysis
Video Technology
Visual Stimuli
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Summary:The current study examined whether and how the presence of a positive or a negative emotional expression may affect the face recognition process at 3 months of age. Using a familiarization procedure, Experiment 1 demonstrated that positive (i.e., happiness), but not negative (i.e., fear and anger) facial expressions facilitate infants’ ability to recognize an individual face. Experiment 2 showed that the advantage of positive over negative facial expressions is driven by the processing of salient features inherent in the happy expression, rather than by the processing of the configural information conveyed by the entire happy face. Overall, these results support the presence of a mutual interaction between face identity and emotion recognition.
ISSN:0165-0254
1464-0651
DOI:10.1177/0165025412465363