Recognition of Emotion in Facial Expressions and Vocal Tones in Children With Psychopathic Tendencies

The authors investigated the ability of children with emotional and behavioral difficulties, divided according to their Psychopathy Screening Device scores (P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press), to recognize emotional facial expressions and vocal tones. The Psychopathy Screening Device indexes a behavioral syndrome with two dimensions: affective disturbance and impulsive and conduct problems. Nine children with psychopathic tendencies and 9 comparison children were presented with 2 facial expression and 2 vocal tone subtests from the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (S. Nowicki & M. P. Duke, 1994). These subtests measure the ability to name sad, fearful, happy, and angry facial expressions and vocal affects. The children with psychopathic tendencies showed selective impairments in the recognition of both sad and fearful facial expressions and sad vocal tone. In contrast, the two groups did not differ in their recognition of happy or angry facial expressions or fearful, happy, and angry vocal tones. The results are interpreted with reference to the suggestion that the development of psychopathic tendencies may reflect early amygdala dysfunction (R. J. R. Blair, J. S. Morris, C. D. Frith, D. I. Perrett, & R. Dolan, 1999).     

A Selective Impairment in the Processing of Sad and Fearful Expressions in Children with Psychopathic Tendencies

The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialisation and interaction. Reduced responsiveness to the expressions of sadness and fear has been implicated in the development of psychopathy (R. J. R. Blair, 1995). The current study investigates the sensitivity of children with psychopathic tendencies to facial expressions. Children with psychopathic tendencies and a comparison group, as defined by the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD; P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press), were presented with a cinematic display of a standardised set of facial expressions that depicted sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise. Participants observed as these facial expressions slowly evolved through 20 successive frames of increasing intensity. The children with psychopathic tendencies presented with selective impairments; they needed significantly more stages before they could successfully recognise the sad expressions and even when the fearful expressions were at full intensity were significantly more likely to mistake them for another expression. These results are interpreted with reference to an amygdala and empathy impairment explanation of psychopathy.     

Expression recognition and behavioural problems in early adolescence

The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialisation and social interaction. Fifty-five children (aged 11–14 years) in mainstream education participated in this study. They were presented with a standardised set of pictures of facial expressions and asked to name one of the six emotions illustrated (sadness, happiness, anger, disgust, fear, and surprise). Following experimental testing, their behaviour was rated by two independent teachers on the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD). The PSD assesses two dimensions of behavioral problems: affective-interpersonal disturbance and impulsive behaviour/conduct problems. The results showed that the ability to recognise sad and fearful expressions (but not happy, angry, disgusted, or surprised expressions) was inversely related to both level of affective-interpersonal disturbance and impulsive/conduct problems. These results are interpreted with reference to current models of empathy and its disorders.     

Turning a deaf ear to fear: impaired recognition of vocal affect in psychopathic individuals

The processing of emotional expressions is fundamental for normal socialization and interaction. Reduced responsiveness to the expressions of sadness and fear has been implicated in the development of psychopathy (R. J. R. Blair, 1995). The current study investigates the ability of adult psychopathic individuals to process vocal affect. Psychopathic and nonpsychopathic adults, defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991), were presented with neutral words spoken with intonations conveying happiness, disgust, anger, sadness, and fear and were asked to identify the emotion of the speaker on the basis of prosody. The results indicated that psychopathic inmates were particularly impaired in the recognition of fearful vocal affect. These results are interpreted with reference to the low-fear and violence inhibition mechanism models of psychopathy.     

Recognition and evaluation of emotional prosody in individuals with generalized social phobia: a pilot study

Studies using facial emotional expressions as stimuli partially support the assumption of biased processing of social signals in social phobia. This pilot study explored for the first time whether individuals with social phobia display a processing bias towards emotional prosody. Fifteen individuals with generalized social phobia and fifteen healthy controls (HC) matched for gender, age, and education completed a recognition test consisting of meaningless utterances spoken in a neutral, angry, sad, fearful, disgusted or happy tone of voice. Participants also evaluated the stimuli with regard to valence and arousal. While these ratings did not differ significantly between groups, analysis of the recognition test revealed enhanced identification of sad and fearful voices and decreased identification of happy voices in individuals with social phobia compared with HC. The two groups did not differ in their processing of neutral, disgust, and anger prosody.     

Psychopathic Traits in Adolescence: the Importance of Examining Components in Face Processing,Voice Processing,and Emotional Skill

This study examined relations among interpersonal, affective, and impulsive-irresponsible psychopathic traits, emotional capacities, and recidivism rates in 144 detained adolescents. Emotional skill was conceptualized using a range of constructs, including face and voice processing, emotional intelligence, and self-reported cognitive and affective empathy. In addition, the relation between these concepts and recidivism three years after the initial assessment was examined. Results indicated that interpersonal traits were positively associated with better facial identification of fearful faces, whereas affective traits were associated with worse facial identification of sad and happy faces as well as angry voices. Impulsive-irresponsible traits were associated with reduced emotional intelligence. Differential predictive utility of the three psychopathic traits dimensions was also evidenced. Findings highlight the need to consider the broad concept of psychopathy, but also its underlying dimensions.     

Visual search of emotional faces: The role of affective content and featural distinctiveness

We investigated the source of the visual search advantage of some emotional facial expressions. An emotional face target (happy, surprised, disgusted, fearful, angry, or sad) was presented in an array of neutral faces. A faster detection was found for happy targets, with angry and, especially, sad targets being detected more poorly. Physical image properties (e.g., luminance) were ruled out as a potential source of these differences in visual search. In contrast, the search advantage is partly due to the facilitated processing of affective content, as shown by an emotion identification task. Happy expressions were identified faster than the other expressions and were less likely to be confounded with neutral faces, whereas misjudgements occurred more often for angry and sad expressions. Nevertheless, the distinctiveness of some local features (e.g., teeth) that are consistently associated with emotional expressions plays the strongest role in the search advantage pattern. When the contribution of these features to visual search was factored out statistically, the advantage disappeared.     

Recognition accuracy and reaction time of vocal expressions of emotion by African-American and Euro-American college women

This study examined the relationship of racial group membership and vocal expressions of emotion. Recognition accuracy and reaction time were examined using the Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Accuracy 2 Receptive Paralanguage subtests with 18 young Euro-American and African-American women. Participants listened to Euro-American children and adults speaking a neutral sentence, and identified the emotion as happy, sad, angry, or fearful. Analysis identified a significant effect for race on reaction time. Euro-American participants had faster mean RT than the African-American women for the recognition of vocal expression of emotion portrayed by Euro-Americans. However, no significant differences were found in mean accurate identification between the two groups. The finding of a significant difference in recognition RT but not in accuracy between the stimuli spoken by an adult and a child was unexpected. Both racial groups had faster mean RT in response to vocal expression of emotion by children.     

Motion or emotion: Infants discriminate emotional biological motion based on low-level visual information

Infants’ ability to discriminate emotional facial expressions and tones of voice is well-established, yet little is known about infant discrimination of emotional body movements. Here, we asked if 10–20-month-old infants rely on high-level emotional cues or low-level motion related cues when discriminating between emotional point-light displays (PLDs). In Study 1, infants viewed 18 pairs of angry, happy, sad, or neutral PLDs. Infants looked more at angry vs. neutral, happy vs. neutral, and neutral vs. sad. Motion analyses revealed that infants preferred the PLD with more total body movement in each pairing. Study 2, in which infants viewed inverted versions of the same pairings, yielded similar findings except for sad-neutral. Study 3 directly paired all three emotional stimuli in both orientations. The angry and happy stimuli did not significantly differ in terms of total motion, but both had more motion than the sad stimuli. Infants looked more at angry vs. sad, more at happy vs. sad, and about equally to angry vs. happy in both orientations. Again, therefore, infants preferred PLDs with more total body movement. Overall, the results indicate that a low-level motion preference may drive infants’ discrimination of emotional human walking motions.     

A signal-detection analysis of sex differences in the perception of emotional faces

A signal-detection task was used to assess sex differences in emotional face recognition under conditions of uncertainty. Computer images of Ekman faces showing sad, angry, happy, and fearful emotional states were presented for 50 ms to thirty-six men and thirty-seven women. All participants monitored for presentation of either happy, angry, or sad emotional expressions in three separate blocks. Happy faces were the most easily discriminated. Sad and angry expressions were most often mistaken for each other. Analyses of d' values, hit rates, and reaction times all yielded similar results, with no sex differences for any of the measures.     

The facial muscle patterning of posed and imagery-induced expressions of emotion by expressive and nonexpressive posers

Much research on emotional facial expression employs posed expressions and expressive subjects. To test the generalizability of this research to more spontaneous expressions of both expressive and nonexpressive posers, subjects engaged in happy, sad, angry, and neutral imagery, and voluntarily posed happy, sad, and angry facial expressions while facial muscle activity (brow, cheek, and mouth regions) and autonomic activity (skin resistance and heart period) were recorded. Subjects were classified as expressive or nonexpressive on the basis of the intensity of their posed expressions. The posed and imagery-induced expressions were similar, but not identical. Brow activity present in the imagery-induced sad expressions was weak or absent in the posed ones. Both nonexpressive and expressive subjects demonstrated similar heart rate acceleration during emotional imagery and demonstrated similar posed and imagery-induced happy expressions, but nonexpressive subjects showed little facial activity during both their posed and imagery-induced sad and angry expressions. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Age-related positivity enhancement is not universal: older Chinese look away from positive stimuli

Socioemotional selectivity theory postulates that with age, people are motivated to derive emotional meaning from life, leading them to pay more attention to positive relative to negative/neutral stimuli. The authors argue that cultures that differ in what they consider to be emotionally meaningful may show this preference to different extents. Using eye-tracking techniques, the authors compared visual attention toward emotional (happy, fearful, sad, and angry) and neutral facial expressions among 46 younger and 57 older Hong Kong Chinese. In contrast to prior Western findings, older but not younger Chinese looked away from happy facial expressions, suggesting that they do not show attentional preferences toward positive stimuli.     

羞怯儿童对模糊情绪面孔的知觉偏差

采用类别知觉情绪识别范式,考察高、低羞怯儿童对快乐-愤怒和快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔的知觉偏差和知觉敏感性。结果发现：（1）相对于低羞怯儿童,高羞怯儿童倾向于将快乐-愤怒模糊情绪面孔知觉为愤怒,将快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔知觉为悲伤;（2）两组儿童在快乐-愤怒、快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔类别界线处的斜率差异均不显著。研究表明高羞怯儿童具有敌意归因偏向和更高的悲伤共情反应,而对快乐-愤怒和快乐-悲伤表情的类别转变不敏感。     

羞怯儿童对模糊情绪面孔的知觉偏差

采用类别知觉情绪识别范式,考察高、低羞怯儿童对快乐-愤怒和快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔的知觉偏差和知觉敏感性。结果发现：（1）相对于低羞怯儿童,高羞怯儿童倾向于将快乐-愤怒模糊情绪面孔知觉为愤怒,将快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔知觉为悲伤;（2）两组儿童在快乐-愤怒、快乐-悲伤模糊情绪面孔类别界线处的斜率差异均不显著。研究表明高羞怯儿童具有敌意归因偏向和更高的悲伤共情反应,而对快乐-愤怒和快乐-悲伤表情的类别转变不敏感。     

Communal and agentic behaviour in response to facial emotion expressions

Facial emotions are important for human communication. Unfortunately, traditional facial emotion recognition tasks do not inform about how respondents might behave towards others expressing certain emotions. Approach‐avoidance tasks do measure behaviour, but only on one dimension. In this study 81 participants completed a novel Facial Emotion Response Task. Images displaying individuals with emotional expressions were presented in random order. Participants simultaneously indicated how communal (quarrelsome vs. agreeable) and how agentic (dominant vs. submissive) they would be in response to each expression. We found that participants responded differently to happy, angry, fearful, and sad expressions in terms of both dimensions of behaviour. Higher levels of negative affect were associated with less agreeable responses specifically towards happy and sad expressions. The Facial Emotion Response Task might complement existing facial emotion recognition and approach‐avoidance tasks.     

Psychopathy and Identification of Facial Expressions of Emotion

The authors examined the association between psychopathy and identification of facial expressions of emotion. Previous research in this area is scant and has produced contradictory findings (Blair et. al., 2001, 2004; Glass & Newman, 2006; Kosson et al., 2002). One hundred and forty-five male jail inmates, rated using the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version participated in a facial affect recognition task. Participants were shown faces containing one of five emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, or shame) displayed at one of two different levels of intensity of expression (100% or 60%). The authors predicted that psychopathy would be associated with decreased affect recognition, particularly for sad and fearful emotional expressions, and decreased recognition of less intense displays of facial affect. Results were largely consistent with expectations in that psychopathy was negatively correlated with overall facial recognition of affect, sad facial affect, and recognition of less intense displays of affect. An unexpected negative correlation with recognition of happy facial affect was also found. These results suggest that psychopathy may be associated with a general deficit in affect recognition.     

Happy mouth and sad eyes: scanning emotional facial expressions

There is evidence that specific regions of the face such as the eyes are particularly relevant for the decoding of emotional expressions, but it has not been examined whether scan paths of observers vary for facial expressions with different emotional content. In this study, eye-tracking was used to monitor scanning behavior of healthy participants while looking at different facial expressions. Locations of fixations and their durations were recorded, and a dominance ratio (i.e., eyes and mouth relative to the rest of the face) was calculated. Across all emotional expressions, initial fixations were most frequently directed to either the eyes or the mouth. Especially in sad facial expressions, participants more frequently issued the initial fixation to the eyes compared with all other expressions. In happy facial expressions, participants fixated the mouth region for a longer time across all trials. For fearful and neutral facial expressions, the dominance ratio indicated that both the eyes and mouth are equally important. However, in sad and angry facial expressions, the eyes received more attention than the mouth. These results confirm the relevance of the eyes and mouth in emotional decoding, but they also demonstrate that not all facial expressions with different emotional content are decoded equally. Our data suggest that people look at regions that are most characteristic for each emotion.     

Tone‐affect compatibility with affective stimuli and affective responses

Three experiments examine multimodal integration of tone pitch (high/low), facial expression stimuli (happy/angry), and responses (happy/angry) in a compatibility paradigm. When the participants' task is to imitate facial expressions (Experiment 1), smiles are facilitated by high tones whereas frowns are facilitated by low tones. Experiments 2 and 3 further analyse this effect and show that there is both integration between the tone stimulus and the facial stimulus and between the tone stimulus and the facial response. Results suggest that pitch height is associated with emotion. An interpretation in terms of an embodied cognition approach that emphasizes an interweavement of perception and action is discussed.     

Behavioural responses to facial and postural expressions of emotion: An interpersonal circumplex approach

While the recognition of emotional expressions has been extensively studied, the behavioural response to these expressions has not. In the interpersonal circumplex, behaviour is defined in terms of communion and agency. In this study, we examined behavioural responses to both facial and postural expressions of emotion. We presented 101 Romanian students with facial and postural stimuli involving individuals (‘targets’) expressing happiness, sadness, anger, or fear. Using an interpersonal grid, participants simultaneously indicated how communal (i.e., quarrelsome or agreeable) and agentic (i.e., dominant or submissive) they would be towards people displaying these expressions. Participants were agreeable‐dominant towards targets showing happy facial expressions and primarily quarrelsome towards targets with angry or fearful facial expressions. Responses to targets showing sad facial expressions were neutral on both dimensions of interpersonal behaviour. Postural versus facial expressions of happiness and anger elicited similar behavioural responses. Participants responded in a quarrelsome‐submissive way to fearful postural expressions and in an agreeable way to sad postural expressions. Behavioural responses to the various facial expressions were largely comparable to those previously observed in Dutch students. Observed differences may be explained from participants’ cultural background. Responses to the postural expressions largely matched responses to the facial expressions.     

Somatic Markers and Response Reversal: Is There Orbitofrontal Cortex Dysfunction in Boys with Psychopathic Tendencies?

This study investigated the performance of boys with psychopathic tendencies and comparison boys, aged 9 to 17 years, on two tasks believed to be sensitive to amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex functioning. Fifty-one boys were divided into two groups according to the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD, P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, in press) and presented with two tasks. The tasks were the gambling task (A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) and the Intradimensional/Extradimensional (ID/ED) shift task (R. Dias, T. W. Robbins, & A. C. Roberts, 1996). The boys with psychopathic tendencies showed impaired performance on the gambling task. However, there were no group differences on the ID/ED task either for response reversal or extradimensional set shifting. The implications of these results for models of psychopathy are discussed.