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Updated: Sep 28, 2025

Conscious and Non-conscious Representations of Emotional Faces in Asperger's Syndrome
Published on: July 31, 2016
Emotional face expressions recognition in childhood: developmental markers, age and sex effect
Aline Romani-Sponchiado1, Cíntia Pacheco Maia1, Carol Nunes Torres1
1Psychology Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande Do Sul (PUCRS), Av. Ipiranga 6681, Building 11, 9th Floor, Porto Alegre, RS, 90619-900, Brazil.
Abstract:
Recognizing emotional face expressions in others is a valuable non-verbal communication and particularly relevant throughout childhood given that children's language skills are not yet fully developed, but the first interactions with peers have just started. This study aims to investigate developmental markers of emotional facial expression in children and the effect of age and sex on it. A total of 90 children split into three age groups: 6-7 years old (n = 30); 8-9 years old (n = 30); 10-11 years old (n = 30) took part in the study. Participants were exposed to 38 photos in two exposure times (500 ms and 1000 ms) of children expressing happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear and surprise on three intensities, plus images of neutral faces. Happiness was the easiest expression to be recognized, followed by disgust and surprise. As expected, 10-11-year-old group showed the highest accuracy means, whereas 6-7-year-old group had the lowest means of accuracy. Data support the non-existence of female advantage.
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