Do great apes use emotional expressions to infer desires?

Although apes understand others’ goals and perceptions, little is known about their understanding of others’ emotional expressions. We conducted three studies following the general paradigm of Repacholi and colleagues (1997, 1998 ). In Study 1, a human reacted emotionally to the hidden contents of two boxes, after which the ape was allowed to choose one of the boxes. Apes distinguished between two of the expressed emotions (happiness and disgust) by choosing appropriately. In Studies 2 and 3, a human reacted either positively or negatively to the hidden contents of two containers; then the ape saw him eating something. When given a choice, apes correctly chose the container to which the human had reacted negatively, based on the inference that the human had just eaten the food to which he had reacted positively – and so the other container still had food left in it. These findings suggest that great apes understand both the directedness and the valence of some human emotional expressions, and can use this understanding to infer desires.     

Preschoolers’ autobiographical memory specificity relates to their emotional adjustment

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) has robust associations with psychopathology. As such, understanding the development of AMS (or its inverse, overgeneral autobiographical memory) and how it may be unique from other aspects of memory performance is important. In particular, it is unclear whether child AMS is distinct from autobiographical memory performance in other contexts, such as during mother–child reminiscing, and whether reduced AMS during early childhood is associated with emotional adjustment as found later in development. In this study, associations between children’s AMS and memory performance during mother–child reminiscing were evaluated. Moreover, the contributions of each type of child memory performance to child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined. Participants included 95 mother–child dyads drawn from a diverse, low-income community. Children’s ages ranged from 3.5 years to 6 years. Dyads participated in a joint reminiscing task about 4 past events, children participated in assessments of AMS, and mothers rated children’s emotional adjustment. Path analysis results indicated that children’s AMS was not significantly related to children’s unique memory contributions during reminiscing. Child AMS was negatively associated with emotional symptoms, whereas child memory during reminiscing was not.     

Does exposure to ambient odors influence the emotional content of memories?

This study examined the effects of implicitly presented odors on the emotional content of memory narratives. Participants were exposed to low levels of perfumes or no odors while they reconstructed a memory from childhood and a recurrent dream. Narratives were analyzed for emotional content using the Linguistic and Inquiry Word Count program. Exposure to perfumes increased the percentage of positive emotion words used by participants in recalling both dreams and childhood memories. In addition, exposure to odors decreased the percentage of negative emotion words that men used in their narratives, whereas the opposite effect was found for women. Discussion focuses on gender differences in written emotional expression, possible ways by which perfumes may exert their effects, and the usefulness of using ambient odors and objective content analysis when studying emotions in memories.     

Ought we to require emotional capacity as part of decisional competence?

The preceding commentary by Louis Charland suggests that traditional cognitive views of decision-making competence err in not taking into account patients' emotional capacities. Examined closely, however, Charland's argument fails to escape the cognitive bias that he condemns. However, there may be stronger arguments for broadening the focus of competence assessment to include emotional capacities, centering on the ways in which emotions aid humans in processing information. Before emotional capacities are added to the list of functions essential for decisional competence, though, the feasibility and utility of such a reorientation must be demonstrated.     

The “EA brief”: A single session of parent feedback and coaching to improve emotional attachment and emotional availability (EA)

The goal of this study was to determine the extent to which a brief parenting intervention provided the context for helping families to support positive mother–child interactions as well as more optimal mother and child outcomes. Participants in this study were middle income mothers and their children were between 0–3 years of age (N = 25 dyads). Participants were filmed via Skype during a 20-minute mother–child free play and completed questionnaires (Time 1) before attending the brief intervention (involving: a single session of one-on-one parent feedback and coaching, and information via group meeting, texts, and reading) followed by a repeat of the 20-minute Skype interaction and the completion of the same questionnaires (Time 2). Paired samples t-tests were performed, revealing that mothers reported improvements in their personal well-being (using the Flourishing Scale), reports about the mother-child relationship (using the Emotional Availability Self Report), and observed interactions, particularly the child's side of the relationship (using the Emotional Availability System), from pretest to posttest. Results are discussed in terms of a single session of parent feedback and coaching (in conjunction with an informational group session and texts) potentially having a role in “planting a seed” for observed and self-reported parenting enhancement and child development.     

Adolescents’ neural response to social reward and real-world emotional closeness and positive affect

Feeling emotionally close to others during social interactions is a ubiquitous and meaningful experience that can elicit positive affect. The present study integrates functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate whether neural response to social reward (1) is related to the experience of emotional closeness and (2) moderates the association between emotional closeness and positive affect during and following social interactions. In this study, 34 typically developing adolescents (ages 14–18 years) completed a social-reward fMRI task, a monetary-reward fMRI task, and a 2-week EMA protocol regarding their social and affective experiences. Adolescents with greater right posterior superior temporal sulcus/temporoparietal junction (pSTS/TPJ) response to social reward reported greater mean momentary emotional closeness. Neural response to social reward in the right pSTS/TPJ moderated how strongly momentary emotional closeness was associated with both concurrent positive affect and future peak happiness, but in different ways. Although emotional closeness had a significant positive association with concurrent positive affect among adolescents at both high and low right pSTS/TPJ response based on a follow-up simple slopes test, this association was stronger for adolescents with low right pSTS/TPJ response. In contrast, emotional closeness had a significant positive association with future peak happiness among adolescents with high right pSTS/TPJ response, but not among those with low right pSTS/TPJ response. These findings demonstrate the importance of neural response to social reward in key social processing regions for everyday experiences of emotional closeness and positive affect in the context of social interactions.     

Facial EMG reactions to facial expressions: A case of facial emotional contagion?

The purpose of this study is to explore whether subjects exposed to stimuli of facial expressions respond with facial electromyographic (EMG) reactions consistent with the hypothesis that facial expressions are contagious. This study further examines whether males and females differ in facial EMG intensity. Two experiments demonstrated that subjects responded with facial EMG activity over the corrugator supercilii, the zygomatic major , the lateral frontalis , the depressor supercilii , and the levator labii muscle regions to stimuli of sad, angry, fearful, surprised, disgusted and happy faces, that, to large extent, were consistent with the hypothesis that facial expressions are contagious. Aspects of gender differences reported in earlier studies were found, indicating a tendency for females to respond with more pronounced facial EMG intensity.     

Adaptive memory: Is the animacy effect on memory due to emotional arousal?

Animate entities are often better remembered than inanimate ones. The proximal mechanisms underlying this animacy effect on recall are unclear. In two experiments, we tested whether the animacy effect is due to emotional arousal. Experiment 1 revealed that translations of the animate words used in the pioneering study of Nairne et al. (Psychological science, 24, 2099–2105, 2013) were perceived as being more arousing than translations of the inanimate words, suggesting that animacy might have been confounded with arousal in previous studies. In Experiment 2, new word lists were created in which the animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal (amongst several other dimensions), and participants were required to reproduce the animate and inanimate words in a free recall task. There was a tendency towards better memory for arousing items, but robust animacy effects were obtained even though animate and inanimate words were matched on arousal. Thus, while arousal may contribute to the animacy effect when it is not carefully controlled for, it cannot explain the memory advantage of animate items.     

Overt congruent facial reaction to dynamic emotional expressions in 9–10-month-old infants

The current study aimed to extend the understanding of the early development of spontaneous facial reactions toward observed facial expressions. Forty-six 9- to 10-month-old infants observed video clips of dynamic human facial expressions that were artificially created with morphing technology. The infants’ facial responses were recorded, and the movements of the facial action unit 12 (e.g., lip-corner raising, associated with happiness) and facial action unit 4 (e.g., brow-lowering, associated with anger) were visually evaluated by multiple naïve raters. Results showed that (1) infants make congruent, observable facial responses to facial expressions, and (2) these specific facial responses are enhanced during repeated observation of the same emotional expressions. These results suggest the presence of observable congruent facial responses in the first year of life, and that they appear to be influenced by contextual information, such as the repetition of presentation of the target emotional expressions.     

Will moral outrage stand up?: Distinguishing among emotional reactions to a moral violation

Moral outrage—anger at violation of a moral standard—is claimed to be a prevalent and powerful moral emotion. However, evidence for moral outrage has been compromised by failure to distinguish it from personal anger—anger at harm to self—felt by victims of a moral violation. Although it does not seem possible to distinguish these two forms of anger by measurement, it is possible to do so by experimental manipulation of their distinct eliciting conditions. Extending previous research, the current study manipulated how a victim (self vs. stranger) was excluded (fairly vs. unfairly) from a favorable experience. Reported anger and behavioral retribution provided evidence of personal anger and revenge, not of moral outrage. These findings suggest that the prevalence and power of moral outrage has been exaggerated. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Would I lie to you? “leakage” in deceptive facial expressions relates to psychopathy and emotional intelligence

This was the first investigation of individual differences in adopting deceptive universal emotional expressions. We hypothesized that psychopathic traits would lead to a heightened ability to suppress emotional expressions and exhibit less “leakage” of inconsistent emotions during deceptive displays. Further, we predicted that emotional intelligence (EI) would lead to a heightened ability to simulate emotional expressions. Participants (N = 100) viewed emotionally arousing (happy, sad, fearful, disgusting) images, responding to each with a genuine or deceptive expression. Each video frame (30/sec) was coded for emotion (in)consistent with the intended expression (365,550 frames coded for 2437 expressions). As predicted, psychopathic traits - specifically, high levels of interpersonal manipulation - were related to shorter durations of unintended emotional “leakage” during deceptive expressions. In contrast, the erratic lifestyle element of psychopathy predicted greater emotional inconsistency during deceptive displays. Individuals higher in EI - specifically, the ability to perceive and express emotion - feigned emotions more convincingly than others but were not more immune to emotional leakage.     

Evaluating risk factors in relation to preschool social–emotional skills using a person-centred approach

Few studies have utilised a person-centred approach when it comes to understanding risk factors in young children. The present study uses this type of approach while examining risk factors in relation to social–emotional skills. Parent reports for 444 preschool-aged children disclosed each child's exposure to eight different risk factors, as well as their social–emotional abilities. A latent class analysis was utilised to examine subgroups of risk, rather than using a cumulative approach, to see whether specific risk factors differentiated participants. Subgroup differences in distal social–emotional skills were then examined. The subgroup with systemic, economic and parent stress risk factors showed the lowest social–emotional abilities, in comparison to subgroups with only systemic or a combination of systemic and economic risks. These results suggest that addressing parent stress may be particularly relevant when considering children's social–emotional development. Implications for interventions and clinical practice are discussed.     

The dot-probe task to measure emotional attention: A suitable measure in comparative studies?

For social animals, attending to and recognizing the emotional expressions of other individuals is of crucial importance for their survival and likely has a deep evolutionary origin. Gaining insight into how emotional expressions evolved as adaptations over the course of evolution can be achieved by making direct cross-species comparisons. To that extent, experimental paradigms that are suitable for investigating emotional processing across species need to be developed and evaluated. The emotional dot-probe task, which measures attention allocation toward emotional stimuli, has this potential. The task is implicit, and subjects need minimal training to perform the task successfully. Findings in nonhuman primates, although scarce, show that they, like humans, have an attentional bias toward emotional stimuli. However, the wide literature on human studies has shown that different factors can have important moderating effects on the results. Due to the large heterogeneity of this literature, these moderating effects often remain unnoticed. We here review this literature and show that subject characteristics and differences in experimental designs affect the results of the dot-probe task. We conclude with specific recommendations regarding these issues that are particularly relevant to take into consideration when applying this paradigm to study animals.     

The My Emotions Questionnaire: A self-report of mothers’ emotional responses to infant crying

The purpose of this article was to examine the psychometrics of the My Emotions Questionnaire, a self-report designed to assess mothers’ emotional reactions when their infants cry. Participants were 240 first-time mothers. When infants were 6 months and 1 year old, mothers completed the new questionnaire and measures assessing beliefs and behavioral responses to infant crying, and interview-based measures of mothers’ emotional reactions and causal attributions about crying were administered. Maternal sensitivity and negative behaviors were observed when infants were 6 months and 1 and 2 years old. Mothers reported on their discipline practices when children were 2 years old. Five emotion factors emerged based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the 6-month data: Amusement, Anxiety, Frustration, Sympathy, and Protective. The five-factor structure was supported via a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the 1-year data. All scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability and significant stability from 6 months to 1 year. Amusement, Frustration, and Protectiveness demonstrated the best convergent validity with cry cognitions and predictive validity to parenting measures, followed by Anxiety, although effects tended to be small to moderate. Evidence for the validity of Sympathy was less compelling. The potential utility of the questionnaire for basic and applied research is discussed.     

Enhanced memory for emotional pictures: A product of increased attention to affective stimuli?

The current experiment addressed the question, is enhanced memory for emotional pictures due to increased attention to affective stimuli? Participants viewed pairs of pictures (emotional-neutral or neutral-neutral) whilst their eye movements were recorded; participants had to decide which picture out of each pair they preferred. There was increased attention to positive pictures and decreased attention to negative images during picture viewing. Despite this, when a recognition test was given 1 week later, memory enhancements were found for negative pictures only. Moreover, although there was a general correlation between total inspection time and memory performance, this reliability was clear only for neutral pictures, and not for emotional images. The results suggest that memory advantages for emotional pictures can occur without increased attention to such images.     

Which cheek to turn? The effect of gender and emotional expressivity on posing behavior

Nicholls et al. (1999, Proc. Royal Soc. B, 266, 1517-1522) demonstrated that models turn their left or right cheeks when expressing or concealing emotion, respectively. This study examined whether emotionally expressive individuals are more likely to turn their left cheek when posing for a photograph than less emotionally expressive individuals. One hundred twenty-four normal participants completed an Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES) and posed for a photograph. Females had a higher EES than males and there was a trend for left cheek posers to have a higher EES than right cheek posers. Females were more likely to turn their left cheek than were males. Results support our argument that emotionally expressive individuals turn their left cheek when posing. The higher incidence of leftward poses in females than males may reflect the higher EES for females. These results support the proposition that the leftward bias in painted portraits is related to a desire to capture the emotive qualities of the left side of the face.     

Feeling the green? Value orientation as a moderator of emotional response to green electricity

Framing effects on emotional responses in a green electricity choice are investigated in a survey of a random sample of 655 Swedish residents. The results show that overall more positive and less negative emotions are experienced for a promotion frame (“choosing green electricity and paying more”) than for a prevention frame (“not choosing green electricity and paying less”). Value orientation is shown to moderate the framing effect in that for the promotion frame, individuals with a self‐transcendence value orientation show the most positive and least negative emotion, whereas for the prevention frame, individuals with a self‐enhancement value orientation show the most positive and least negative emotion. Emotional responses are further shown to mediate the relationship between value orientation and intention to purchase eco‐labeled electricity.     

Age-related decline in the ability to decode emotional prosody: Primary or secondary phenomenon?

Emotion processing deficits can cause catastrophic damage to a person's ability to interact socially. While it is known that older adults have difficulty identifying facial emotions, it is still not clear whether this difficulty extends to identification of the emotion conveyed by prosody. This study investigated whether the ability of older adults to decode emotional prosody falls below that of young adults after controlling for loss of hearing sensitivity and key features of cognitive ageing. Apart from frontal lobe load, only verbal IQ was associated with the age-related reduction in performance displayed by older participants, but a notable deficit existed after controlling for its effects. It is concluded that older adults may indeed have difficulty deducing the emotion conveyed by prosody, and that while this difficulty can be exaggerated by some aspects of cognitive ageing, it is primary in origin.     

Dynamic emotional messages differentially affect 6-month-old infants’ attention to eyes and gaze cues

Infants often experience interactions in which caregivers use dynamic messages to convey their affective and communicative intent. These dynamic emotional messages may shape the development of emotion discrimination skills and shared attention by influencing infants’ attention to internal facial features and their responses to eye gaze cues. However, past research examining infants’ responses to emotional faces has predominantly focused on classic, stereotyped expressions (e.g., happy, sad, angry) that may not reflect the variability that infants experience in their daily interactions. The present study therefore examined forty-two 6-month-old infants’ attention to eyes vs. mouth and gaze cueing responses across multiple dynamic emotional messages that are common to infant-directed interactions. Overall, infants looked more to the eyes during messages with negative affect, but this increased attention to the eyes during these message conditions did not directly facilitate gaze cueing. Infants instead showed reliable gaze cueing only after messages with positive and neutral affect. We additionally observed gender differences in infants’ attention to internal face features and subsequent gaze cueing responses. Female infants spent more time looking at the eyes during the dynamic emotional messages and showed increased initial orienting and longer looking to gaze-cued objects following positive messages, whereas male infants showed these gaze cueing effects following neutral messages. These results suggest that variability in caregivers' communication can shape infants’ attention to and processing of emotion and gaze information.