title: The integration of visual context information in facial emotion recognition in 5- to 15-year-olds.
abstract: The current study investigated the role of congruent visual context information in the recognition of facial emotional expression in 190 participants from 5 to 15years of age. Children performed a matching task that presented pictures with different facial emotional expressions (anger, disgust, happiness, fear, and sadness) in two conditions: with and without a visual context. The results showed that emotions presented with visual context information were recognized more accurately than those presented in the absence of visual context. The context effect remained steady with age but varied according to the emotion presented and the gender of participants. The findings demonstrated for the first time that children from the age of 5years are able to integrate facial expression and visual context information, and this integration improves facial emotion recognition.
authors.affiliation: SensoriMotor, Affective, and Social Development Lab, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Theurel
authors.affiliation: SensoriMotor, Affective, and Social Development Lab, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland; Université de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, LEAD-CNRS, 21000 Dijon, France.
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Witt
authors.affiliation: SensoriMotor, Affective, and Social Development Lab, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Malsert
authors.affiliation: Child Clinical Neuropsychology Unit, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fleur
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lejeune
authors.affiliation: SensoriMotor, Affective, and Social Development Lab, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fiorentini
authors.affiliation: Child Clinical Neuropsychology Unit, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Koviljka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Barisnikov
authors.affiliation: SensoriMotor, Affective, and Social Development Lab, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland; University Grenoble Alpes, LPNC-CNRS, 38040 Grenoble, France. Electronic address: edouard.gentaz@unige.ch.
authors.forename: Edouard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gentaz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Children; Context integration; Development; Emotion; Facial expression; Visual context