Citation

Pollak SD, Messner M, Kistler DJ, Cohn JF. Cognition 2009; 110(2): 242-247.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology and Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53711, USA. spollak@wisc.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.cognition.2008.10.010

PMID

19059585

PMCID

PMC2673797

Abstract

How do children's early social experiences influence their perception of emotion-specific information communicated by the face? To examine this question, we tested a group of abused children who had been exposed to extremely high levels of parental anger expression and physical threat. Children were presented with arrays of stimuli that depicted the unfolding of facial expressions, from neutrality to peak emotions. The abused children accurately recognized anger early in the formation of the facial expression, when few physiological cues were available. The speed of children's recognition was associated with the degree of anger/hostility reported by the child's parent. These data highlight the ways in which perceptual learning can shape the timing of emotion perception.

Language: en