Biomaterial Database

The generalized discrimination of facial expressions by seven-month-old infants. 1985

C A Nelson, and K G Dolgin

2 experiments were conducted to examine 7-month-old infants' perception of the facial expressions happy and fear. Using a paired-comparison procedure, infants in the first experiment were able to generalize their discrimination of these 2 expressions across the faces of 4 male and female models if they were first presented with the set of happy faces, but not if they were first presented with the set of fear faces. A second experiment was conducted to examine the source of the stimulus presentation order effect. Here a second group of 7-month-old infants was presented with a single male or female face posing both the happy and fear expressions simultaneously. The results revealed significantly longer looking to the fear face. This preference to look at fear faces is discussed, as are its implications for studies of expression recognition in general.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D010364	Pattern Recognition, Visual	Mental process to visually perceive a critical number of facts (the pattern), such as characters, shapes, displays, or designs.	Recognition, Visual Pattern,Visual Pattern Recognition
D002666	Psychology, Child	Branch of psychology involving the study of normal and abnormal behavior of children.	Child Psychology,Infant Psychology,Pediatric Psychology,Psychology, Infant,Psychology, Pediatric
D005149	Facial Expression	Observable changes of expression in the face in response to emotional stimuli.	Face Expression,Expression, Face,Expression, Facial,Face Expressions,Facial Expressions
D005239	Fear	The affective response to an actual current external danger which subsides with the elimination of the threatening condition.	Threat Cues,Threat Sensitivity,Cue, Threat,Fears,Sensitivity, Threat,Threat Cue,Threat Sensitivities
D005556	Form Perception	The sensory discrimination of a pattern, shape, or outline.	Contour Perception,Contour Perceptions,Form Perceptions,Perception, Contour,Perception, Form,Perceptions, Contour,Perceptions, Form
D006240	Happiness	Highly pleasant emotion characterized by outward manifestations of gratification.	Gladness,Joy,Happinesses
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D013997	Time Factors	Elements of limited time intervals, contributing to particular results or situations.	Time Series,Factor, Time,Time Factor