Lindell Annukka K, Tenenbaum Harriet R, Aznar Ana
a Department of Psychology and Counselling , La Trobe University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
b School of Psychology , University of Surrey , Guilford , UK.
Laterality. 2017 Jan;22(1):17-30. doi: 10.1080/1357650X.2015.1108328. Epub 2015 Nov 3.
As the left hemiface is controlled by the emotion-dominant right hemisphere, emotion is expressed asymmetrically. Portraits showing a model's left cheek consequently appear more emotive. Though the left cheek bias is well established in adults, it has not been investigated in children. To determine whether the left cheek biases for emotion perception and expression are present and/or develop between the ages of 3 and 7 years, 145 children (71 male, 74 female; M age = 65.49 months) completed two experimental tasks: one assessing biases in emotion perception, and the other assessing biases in emotion expression. Regression analysis confirmed that children aged 3-7 years find left cheek portraits happier than right cheek portraits, and age does not predict the magnitude of the bias. In contrast when asked to pose for a photo expressing happiness children did not show a left cheek bias, with logistic regression confirming that age did not predict posing orientations. These findings indicate that though the left cheek bias for emotion perception is established by age 3, a similar bias for emotion expression is not evident by age 7. This implies that tacit knowledge of the left cheek's greater expressivity is not innate but develops in later childhood/adolescence.
由于左半脸由情感主导的右脑控制，情感表达呈现不对称性。因此，展示模特左脸颊的肖像看起来更具情感。尽管左脸颊偏向在成年人中已得到充分证实，但在儿童中尚未进行研究。为了确定在3至7岁之间是否存在以及是否会发展出情感感知和表达方面的左脸颊偏向，145名儿童（71名男性，74名女性；平均年龄=65.49个月）完成了两项实验任务：一项评估情感感知方面的偏向，另一项评估情感表达方面的偏向。回归分析证实，3至7岁的儿童认为左脸颊肖像比右脸颊肖像更快乐，且年龄并不能预测偏向的程度。相比之下，当被要求摆姿势拍一张表达快乐的照片时，儿童并没有表现出左脸颊偏向，逻辑回归证实年龄并不能预测摆姿势的方向。这些发现表明，尽管情感感知方面的左脸颊偏向在3岁时就已形成，但情感表达方面类似的偏向在7岁时并不明显。这意味着，对左脸颊更强表现力的隐性认知并非与生俱来，而是在童年后期/青少年期发展形成的。
