Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study
The preschool age is an important period in the development of children’s emotional abilities. The face and body are both vital carriers of emotional information and adults readily match the emotional cues coming from these two modalities. However, it is unknown whether preschoolers have this abilit...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2023-12-01
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| Series: | SAGE Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231214347 |
| _version_ | 1827592593264869376 |
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| author | Hanlin Ren Liang Huang Fangyuan Du Wenxin Huang Guoyao Lin Mariska E. Kret Shunsen Chen |
| author_facet | Hanlin Ren Liang Huang Fangyuan Du Wenxin Huang Guoyao Lin Mariska E. Kret Shunsen Chen |
| author_sort | Hanlin Ren |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The preschool age is an important period in the development of children’s emotional abilities. The face and body are both vital carriers of emotional information and adults readily match the emotional cues coming from these two modalities. However, it is unknown whether preschoolers have this ability or not. In the current study, 36 preschoolers (22 boys, aged 44–73 months old) participated in an emotional facial and bodily matching test including angry, happy, and neutral expressions (Experiment 1) and an eye-tracking experiment (Experiment 2). The results show that: (1) preschoolers can accurately match three categories of facial and bodily expressions of emotion (all matching rates were above 93% in Experiment 1); (2) robust emotional matching was observed across conditions in Experiment 2. That is, the eye-tracking indexes including the total fixation duration, the first fixation duration, and the fixation count, all indicated that the preschoolers more thoroughly processed bodily expressions of emotion which were congruent to the facial expressions compared to incongruent bodily expressions of emotion. This study shows that the ability to match facial and bodily expressions of emotion develops at an early age. Preschool children have already reached a high level of this ability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T01:56:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5ac98dbb302c4a5e8ffb7bc5950a024c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2158-2440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T01:56:54Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SAGE Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-5ac98dbb302c4a5e8ffb7bc5950a024c2023-12-08T14:03:58ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402023-12-011310.1177/21582440231214347Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking StudyHanlin Ren0Liang Huang1Fangyuan Du2Wenxin Huang3Guoyao Lin4Mariska E. Kret5Shunsen Chen6Third People’s Hospital of Zhongshan, Zhongshan, ChinaFujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Institute of Applied Psychology, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, ChinaFujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Institute of Applied Psychology, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, ChinaFujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Institute of Applied Psychology, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, ChinaFujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Institute of Applied Psychology, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, ChinaCognitive Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The NetherlandsFujian Key Laboratory of Applied Cognition and Personality, Institute of Applied Psychology, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, ChinaThe preschool age is an important period in the development of children’s emotional abilities. The face and body are both vital carriers of emotional information and adults readily match the emotional cues coming from these two modalities. However, it is unknown whether preschoolers have this ability or not. In the current study, 36 preschoolers (22 boys, aged 44–73 months old) participated in an emotional facial and bodily matching test including angry, happy, and neutral expressions (Experiment 1) and an eye-tracking experiment (Experiment 2). The results show that: (1) preschoolers can accurately match three categories of facial and bodily expressions of emotion (all matching rates were above 93% in Experiment 1); (2) robust emotional matching was observed across conditions in Experiment 2. That is, the eye-tracking indexes including the total fixation duration, the first fixation duration, and the fixation count, all indicated that the preschoolers more thoroughly processed bodily expressions of emotion which were congruent to the facial expressions compared to incongruent bodily expressions of emotion. This study shows that the ability to match facial and bodily expressions of emotion develops at an early age. Preschool children have already reached a high level of this ability.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231214347 |
| spellingShingle | Hanlin Ren Liang Huang Fangyuan Du Wenxin Huang Guoyao Lin Mariska E. Kret Shunsen Chen Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study SAGE Open |
| title | Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_full | Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_fullStr | Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_short | Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study |
| title_sort | preschoolers can match the facial and bodily emotional expressions a behavior and eye tracking study |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231214347 |
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