title: Age effects on emotion recognition in facial displays: from 20 to 89 years of age.
abstract: BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: An emotion recognition task that morphs emotional facial expressions from an initial neutral expression to distinct increments of the full emotional expression was administered to 482 individuals, 20 to 89 years of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants assessed six basic emotions at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the full facial expression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants in the three oldest age groups (60s, 70s, and 80s) demonstrated decreased performance for the recognition of the fear, anger, and sad emotions. Increased age was associated with increased recognition rates for the disgust expression, whereas no age effect was detected for the happy and surprise expressions. Covariate analyses revealed age effects were reduced by processing speed, but were unaffected by decision-making ability. The effects of age on individual emotions and levels of presentation are discussed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that age has the greatest impact on the recognition of the sad emotion and the greatest age effect at the 50% level of presentation across the adult life span.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80933-7150, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: West
authors.forename: Sheena M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Horning
authors.forename: Kelli J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Klebe
authors.forename: Shannon M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Foster
authors.forename: R Elisabeth
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Cornwell
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Perrett
authors.forename: D Michael
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Burt
authors.forename: Hasker P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult