Department of Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467, USA.
Emotion. 2012 Oct;12(5):919-25. doi: 10.1037/a0026119. Epub 2011 Nov 7.
Do people always interpret a facial expression as communicating a single emotion (e.g., the anger face as only angry) or is that interpretation malleable? The current study investigated preschoolers' (N = 60; 3-4 years) and adults' (N = 20) categorization of facial expressions. On each of five trials, participants selected from an array of 10 facial expressions (an open-mouthed, high arousal expression and a closed-mouthed, low arousal expression each for happiness, sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) all those that displayed the target emotion. Children's interpretation of facial expressions was malleable: 48% of children who selected the fear, anger, sadness, and disgust faces for the "correct" category also selected these same faces for another emotion category; 47% of adults did so for the sadness and disgust faces. The emotion children and adults attribute to facial expressions is influenced by the emotion category for which they are looking.
人们是否总是将面部表情解读为传达单一的情绪（例如，将愤怒的面孔仅解读为愤怒），还是这种解读具有可塑性？本研究调查了学龄前儿童（N=60；3-4 岁）和成年人（N=20）对面部表情的分类。在每五次试验中，参与者从 10 个面部表情的数组中进行选择（每个表情都有一个张开嘴、高度唤起的表情和一个闭着嘴、低度唤起的表情，分别代表快乐、悲伤、愤怒、恐惧和厌恶），选择所有显示目标情绪的表情。儿童对面部表情的解释具有可塑性：48%的儿童将恐惧、愤怒、悲伤和厌恶的面孔选择为“正确”类别，也将这些相同的面孔选择为另一个情绪类别；47%的成年人也将悲伤和厌恶的面孔选择为“正确”类别。儿童和成年人赋予面部表情的情绪受到他们所寻找的情绪类别的影响。
