Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2012 Oct;43(5):775-94. doi: 10.1007/s10578-012-0296-z.
Recognizing facial affect is essential for effective social functioning. This study examines emotion recognition abilities in children aged 7-13 years with High Functioning Autism (HFA = 19), Social Phobia (SP = 17), or typical development (TD = 21). Findings indicate that all children identified certain emotions more quickly (e.g., happy < anger, disgust, sad < fear) and more accurately (happy) than other emotions (disgust). No evidence was found for negative interpretation biases in children with HFA or SP (i.e., all groups showed similar ability to discriminate neutral from non-neutral facial expressions). However, distinct between-group differences emerged when considering facial expression intensity. Specifically, children with HFA detected mild affective expressions less accurately than TD peers. Behavioral ratings of social effectiveness or social anxiety were uncorrelated with facial affect recognition abilities across children. Findings have implications for social skills treatment programs targeting youth with skill deficits.
识别面部情感对于有效的社交功能至关重要。本研究考察了 7-13 岁高功能自闭症（HFA=19 人）、社交恐惧症（SP=17 人）或典型发育（TD=21 人）儿童的情绪识别能力。研究结果表明，所有儿童都能更快（例如，快乐 < 愤怒、厌恶、悲伤 < 恐惧）和更准确（快乐）地识别某些情绪，而不是其他情绪（厌恶）。在 HFA 或 SP 儿童中未发现负面解释偏差的证据（即，所有组在区分中性和非中性面部表情方面的能力相似）。然而，当考虑面部表情强度时，出现了明显的组间差异。具体而言，与 TD 同龄人相比，HFA 儿童对轻度情感表达的检测准确性较低。社会有效性或社交焦虑的行为评定与儿童的面部情感识别能力无关。研究结果对针对技能缺陷的青年社交技能治疗方案具有重要意义。
