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Updated: May 29, 2026

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
Published on: July 31, 2016
Errors in identifying and expressing emotion in facial expressions, voices, and postures unique to social anxiety
Amy S Walker1, Stephen Nowicki, Jeffrey Jones
1St. John's University, Department of Psychology, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Queens, NY 11439, USA. amy.walker09@stjohns.edu
Abstract:
The purpose of the present study was to see if 7-10-year-old socially anxious children (n = 26) made systematic errors in identifying and sending emotions in facial expressions, paralanguage, and postures as compared with the more random errors of children who were inattentive-hyperactive (n = 21). It was found that socially anxious children made more errors in identifying anger and fear in children's facial expressions and anger in adults' postures and in expressing anger in their own facial expressions than did their inattentive-hyperactive peers. Results suggest that there may be systematic difficulties specifically in visual nonverbal emotion communication that contribute to the personal and social difficulties socially anxious children experience.
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