Situational effects on the identification of emotions in children

Naive judges were asked to observe infants independently and judge their emotions at 5 sec intervals under three different conditions. Two experiments were conducted to produce the different conditions. In Experiment I, 9- and 12-month-old infants of both sexes (N = 40) were exposed to a series of situations each designed to provoke a specific emotion (Condition 1). Although the judges were not informed as to which emotion each situation sought to provoke, one may assume that they received clues from the situations themselves. In Experiment II, 13- to 17-month-old infants of both sexes (N = 16) were individually placed on a large table (8' X 6') on which they could explore or play in the presence of their mothers (Condition 2). The judges were tota-ly without guidelines as to what emotion to expect. For Condition 3 in the same experiment the table was transformed into a visual cliff, and the judges were told that the generally expected emotion was fear. The judges reached significant agreement for the emotions of interest and anger in Conditions 1, 2, and 3; for distress only in Condition 1; for joy only in Condition 3; and no agreement for fear in any condition.