Understanding Children's Accuracy in Recognizing Facial Expressions of Pain.

Facial expressions of pain have an adaptive function in informing others of the need of attention and care. The detection of these nonverbal cues is particularly important in children since they are not always capable of expressing their needs verbally. Nevertheless, research recurrently shows that distinguishing between genuine, suppressed, and simulated pain expressions produced by children is a difficult task for adults; even when their professions require such a skill (e.g. doctors or nurses). Only a few studies have explored the development of this specific ability amongst children's peers. The current study aims to fill this literature gap by exploring children's ability to recognize and judge genuine, simulated, and suppressed expressions of pain produced by other children their age. Seventy-nine children from kindergarten to fourth grade viewed videos in which children encoders expressed the three aforementioned types of pain while plunging their hand in cold or warm water. Participants were asked to select the type of pain that was expressed. They were also asked their level of confidence in their answer and the level of pain they thought the children were experiencing. Despite having a high level of confidence in their answers, kindergarteners had a significantly lower proportion of correct answers compared to children in third and fourth grade. Furthermore, regardless of their grade level, children were better at recognizing suppressed pain expressions and had lower performance rates for genuine pain recognition. Our overall findings revealed an improvement in children's performance with aging.

Community-based screening and triage connecting First Nations children and youth to local supports: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: First Nations children in Canada experience health inequities. We aimed to determine whether a self-report health app identified children's needs for support earlier in their illness than would typically occur. METHODS: Children (aged 8 to 18 yr) were recruited from a rural First Nation community. Children completed the Aaniish Naa Gegii: the Children's Health and Well-being Measure (ACHWM) and then met with a local mental health worker who determined their risk status. ACHWM Emotional Quadrant Scores (EQS) were compared between 3 groups of children: healthy peers (HP) who were not at risk, those with newly identified needs (NIN) who were at risk and not previously identified, and a typical treatment (TT) group who were at risk and already receiving support. RESULTS: We included 227 children (57.1% girls), and the mean age was 12.9 (standard deviation [SD] 2.9) years. The 134 children in the HP group had a mean EQS of 80.1 (SD 11.25), the 35 children in the NIN group had a mean EQS of 67.2 (SD 13.27) and the 58 children in the TT group had a mean EQS of 66.2 (SD 16.30). The HP group had significantly better EQS than the NIN and TT groups (p < 0.001). The EQS did not differ between the NIN and TT groups (p = 0.8). INTERPRETATION: The ACHWM screening process identified needs for support among 35 children, and the associated triage process connected them to local services; the similarity of EQS in the NIN and TT groups highlights the value of community screening to optimize access to services. Future research will examine the impact of this process over the subsequent year in these groups.

The effect of instructions and response format on smile judgement.

Our study examined the role of instructions, response type, and definition on the judgement of enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles. Participants viewed symmetric Duchenne, non-Duchenne, and asymmetric smiles. They were instructed to judge the happiness, authenticity, and sincerity of the smiles using either Likert scales or a dichotomous response type. Participants were also either given a definition of the instruction words "happy," "authentic," and "sincere" or not. Results showed that the probability of saying "really (happy/sincere/authentic)" was higher for the symmetric Duchenne than the asymmetric smiles and higher for the asymmetric than non-Duchenne smiles. Changing the instructions given to participants did not override the effect of smile type with the use of Likert scale or dichotomous response. However, with the use of Likert scale, we observed subtilities that were not observed with the use of dichotomous response. When given a definition, in the case of symmetric non-Duchenne smiles, Likert ratings were significantly lower, and participants were more accurate in their judgement on the dichotomous scale. However, no differences were observed for the asymmetric Duchenne and symmetric Duchenne smiles whether a definition was given or not. Symmetric non-Duchenne and asymmetric Duchenne smiles were also viewed longer when a definition was given than when one was not. Nevertheless, considering methodological variations of our study failed to explain the variations in the pattern of results of previous studies, other avenues should be explored, such as the use of dynamic stimuli and a greater variety of encoders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploration of visual factors in the disgust-anger confusion: the importance of the mouth.

According to the perceptual-attentional limitations hypothesis, the confusion between expressions of disgust and anger may be due to the difficulty in perceptually distinguishing the two, or insufficient attention to their distinctive cues. The objective of the current study was to test this hypothesis as an explanation for the confusion between expressions of disgust and anger in adults using eye-movements. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to identify each emotion in 96 trials composed of prototypes of anger and prototypes of disgust. In Experiment 2, fixation points oriented participants' attention toward the eyes, the nose, or the mouth of each prototype. Results revealed that disgust was less accurately recognised than anger (Experiment 1 and 2), especially when the mouth was open (Experiment 1 and 2), and even when attention was oriented toward the distinctive features of disgust (Experiment 2). Additionally, when attention was oriented toward certain zones, the eyes (which contain characteristics of anger) had the longest dwell times, followed by the nose (which contains characteristics of disgust; Experiment 2). Thus, although participants may attend to the distinguishing features of disgust and anger, these may not aid them in accurately recognising each prototype.

The role of emotion-related individual differences in enjoyment and masking smile judgment.

BACKGROUND: While some research indicates that individuals can accurately judge smile authenticity of enjoyment and masking smile expressions, other research suggest modest judgment rates of masking smiles. The current study explored the role of emotion-related individual differences in the judgment of authenticity and recognition of negative emotions in enjoyment and masking smile expressions as a potential explanation for the differences observed. METHODS: Specifically, Experiment 1 investigated the role of emotion contagion (Doherty in J Nonverbal Behav 21:131-154, 1997), emotion intelligence (Schutte et al. in Personality Individ Differ 25:167-177, 1998), and emotion regulation (Gratz and Roemer in J Psychopathol Behav Assess 26:41-54, 2004) in smile authenticity judgment and recognition of negative emotions in masking smiles. Experiment 2 investigated the role of state and trait anxiety (Spielberger et al. in Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, 1983) in smile authenticity judgment and recognition of negative emotions in the same masking smiles. In both experiments, repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted for judgment of authenticity, probability of producing the expected response, for the detection of another emotion, and for emotion recognition. A series of correlations were also calculated between the proportion of expected responses of smile judgement and the scores on the different subscales. RESULTS: Results of the smile judgment and recognition tasks were replicated in both studies, and echoed results from prior studies of masking smile judgment: participants rated enjoyment smiles as happier than the masking smiles and, of the masking smiles, participants responded "really happy" more often for the angry-eyes masking smiles and more often categorized fear masking smiles as "not really happy". CONCLUSIONS: Overall, while the emotion-related individual differences used in our study seem to have an impact on recognition of basic emotions in the literature, our study suggest that these traits, except for emotional awareness, do not predict performances on the judgment of complex expressions such as masking smiles. These results provide further information regarding the factors that do and do not contribute to greater judgment of smile authenticity and recognition of negative emotions in masking smiles.

Contextual cues about reciprocity impact ratings of smile sincerity.

Research has shown that context influences how sincere a smile appears to observers. That said, most studies on this topic have focused exclusively on situational cues (e.g. smiling while at a party versus smiling during a job interview) and few have examined other elements of context. One important element concerns any knowledge an observer might have about the smiler as an individual (e.g. their habitual behaviours, traits or attitudes). In this manuscript, we present three experiments that explored the influence of such knowledge on ratings of smile sincerity. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants rated the sincerity of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles after having been exposed to cues about the smiler's tendency to reciprocate (this person always, never or occasionally returns favours). In Experiment 3 they performed the same task but with cues about the smiler's love of learning (this person always, never or occasionally enjoys learning new tasks). The results show that cues about the smiler's reciprocity tendency influenced participants' ratings of smile sincerity and did so in a stronger manner than cues about the smiler's love of learning. Overall, these results both strengthen and broaden the literature on the role of context on judgements of smile sincerity.

The Development of the Missing-Letter Effect Revisited.

When participants read a text for comprehension while identifying a target letter, the letter is more often missed in a frequent function word than in a less frequent content word. This is the missing-letter effect. Studies have shown the importance of both frequency and word function. The role of each of these factors in development is less understood. The goal of this study was to revisit the influence of frequency and word function in the missing-letter effect in development with better-controlled stimuli. Two hundred sixteen participants took part in this study and were divided into five groups (6-7 years, 8 years, 9 years, 10-11 years, and university students). They were asked to read four experimental texts for comprehension and to circle a target letter. The results showed a basic missing-letter effect with more omissions for a frequent function word than a less frequent content word for every group. When frequency was controlled, we found a word function effect as early as 6-7 years of age, with more omissions for a function word than a content word. In contrast, when word function was controlled, an effect of frequency was only significant for adults and 8-year-olds. These results clarify discrepancies in the literature and support the importance of rigorous stimuli control.

The Role of Vocabulary Skills in a Storybook-Based Intervention to Stimulate Emotion Comprehension in Preschoolers.

Understanding emotions is an important predictor of children's mental health and school adjustment. However, interventions to improve this skill are not always accessible to all children. In 2019, Roy, Dénommée, and Quenneville developed stories with content specifically designed to 'teach' about emotions. Because it is a literacy-oriented intervention, it is possible that vocabulary may play a role in learning. This project explored the role of vocabulary in understanding emotion in preschool children and its learning. Forty-three preschoolers (19 control and 24 experimental) were evaluated on vocabulary skills and emotion comprehension. For multiple components, results showed an effect of time of measure, regardless of group. However, the addition of receptive vocabulary as a covariate made this effect non-significant. Results revealed that the stories were an effective strategy in promoting emotion comprehension for Components Belief and Reminder; two skills that are in the process of development in this age group. Furthermore, vocabulary skills did not impact the interaction for Belief for post-test gains and, for Reminder, while emotional vocabulary skills impacted the interaction at post-test, receptive vocabulary did not.

Search for the Developmental Turning Point in Perceptual-Attentional Processing in the Confusion between Fear and Surprise.

This project examined viewing times and saccades while participants recognize fear and surprise presented in pairs within groups. Roy-Charland, Perron, Young, Boulard, and Chamberland (2015) found that children ages 9-11 were as accurate as adults in recognizing the emotions, and both groups were higher than children ages 3-5. Interestingly, the two groups of children made fewer saccades between the pair of faces and viewed the expressions longer than the adult group. Thus, while accuracy is equal to adults by ages 9-11, visual processing differs. This project added a group of adolescents (14-17) in search of a turning point in visual strategies used in the perceptual-attentional processing of fear and surprise. Results suggest a speed/accuracy tradeoff. In effect, adolescents were as fast as adults, but their accuracy was lower. Furthermore, adolescents made fewer saccades than adults, similar to groups aged 3-5 and 9-11 years old. These results add another piece in the understanding of the developmental trajectory of recognition of facial expressions.

The Use of Dyadic Reading in Stimulating the Comprehension of Emotions.

According to the model proposed by Pons, Doudin, and Harris , children develop nine components of emotion comprehension between the ages of three to twelve. Studies reveal that children's comprehension of emotions can be stimulated by adults reading books designed for this purpose to preschool-aged children. The aim of this study is to explore whether dyadic reading is an effective strategy for stimulating emotion comprehension in school-aged children. Elementary school children (3rd, 4th and 5th grade) participated in the experimental or the control group. The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) was administered at pretest and post-test. Participants in the experimental group read the books on emotion comprehension for five sessions, while participants in the control group read classroom books. Results revealed that reading the emotion comprehension books increased the TEC post-test scores significantly from pretest for children in the experimental group, compared to the control group. For the Components Reminder, Belief and Morality scores at post-test were significantly increased from pretest for children in the experimental group, compared to the control group. Results suggest that dyadic book readings are successful in helping children with both complex components of their emotion comprehension and simpler ones. This intervention could be of use for teaching school-aged children emotion comprehension easily, effectively, and at low-cost.

Performing various perceptual actions elicits differentiable P300 responses.

Several studies have explored the differentiation of visual action verbs (e.g., see, perceive, and notice). The vast number and variety to choose from, along with a common understanding between the meanings of the words, suggests that they may represent measurable differences in perceptual processing. The present study investigated how manipulating the visual action verb embedded into a common instruction could produce either differentiable electrophysiological or behavioral effects, or possibly both. It was hypothesized that the P300 component elicited during an oddball task would differ depending on the visual action that participants had been instructed to perform. Results support this hypothesis, but suggest that response bias also could contribute to action performance. When participants were asked to 'sense' deviants in an oddball task, the P300 differed in amplitude compared to when they were asked to 'distinguish' the deviants. In addition, participants displayed varying response times for the instructions 'notice' versus 'view', 'distinguish' versus 'sense', and 'notice' versus 'sense'. When considering the behavioral and ERP results together, we can conclude that response biases and perceptual cognitive processing both contribute to how identical stimuli can be processed depending on the visual action performed.

Smile judgment in substance use disorders and its relationship to interpersonal and emotional functioning: An eye-tracking investigation.

The current study explored the judgments individuals with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) make regarding the authenticity of enjoyment smiles and masking smiles containing traces of negative emotions. Accuracy at identifying the masked negative emotions were also examined. Eye-movements were recorded to observe relationships between attentional processes and smile judgment. Additionally, the relationships between smile judgment, emotion dysregulation, and interpersonal problems were investigated. Twenty individuals with SUDs and twenty individuals matched on gender/age participated in the smile judgment task. Results indicated that individuals with SUDs were no different in their categorization of smiles. However, the results showed that individuals with SUDs were significantly more likely to report the presence of negative emotions in the expressions. They were also more often incorrect in their identification of the masked emotions. No link was observed between smile judgment and attentional processes. Emotional and interpersonal functioning were related more to the ability to distinguish smile authenticity than the ability to identify masked emotions.

When pictures take away from the message: An examination of young adults' attention to texting and driving advertisements.

This study examined eye-movement patterns of young adults, while they were viewing texting and driving prevention advertisements, to determine which format attracts the most attention. As young adults are the most at risk for this public health issue, understanding which format is most successful at maintaining young adults' attention is especially important. Participants viewed nondriving, general distracted driving, and texting and driving advertisements. Each of these advertisement types were edited to contain text-only, image-only, and text and image content. Participants were told that they had unlimited time to view each advertisement, while their eye-movements were recorded throughout. Participants spent more time viewing the texting and driving advertisements than other types when they comprised text only. When examining differences in attention to the text and image portions of the advertisements, participants spent more time viewing the images than the text for the nondriving and general distracted driving advertisements. However, for texting and driving-specific advertisements the text-only format resulted in the most attention toward the advertisements. These results indicate that in attracting young adults' attention to texting and driving public health advertisements, the most successful format would be text-based. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Cognition on Navigational Skills of Children and Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Purpose: This study examined the role of cognition on the navigational process of a speech-generating device (SGD) among individuals with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The objective was to investigate the role of various cognitive factors (i.e., cognitive flexibility, sustained attention, categorization, fluid reasoning, and working memory) on the ability to navigate an SGD with dynamic paging and taxonomic grids in individuals with ASD. Method: Twenty individuals aged 5 to 20 years with ASD were assessed using the Leiter International Performance Scale-Revised (Roid & Miller, 1997) and the Automated Working Memory Assessment (Alloway, 2007). They also completed a navigational task using an iPad 4 (Apple, 2017; taxonomic organization). Results: Significant correlations between all of the cognitive factors and the ability to navigate an SGD were revealed. A stepwise linear regression suggested that cognitive flexibility was the best predictor of navigational ability with this population. Conclusion: The importance of cognition in the navigational process of an SGD with dynamic paging in children and adolescents with ASD has been highlighted by the results of this study.

Examining the Utility of the New Raney Vocabulary Measure Alongside the WAIS-III.

Psychometric tests related to vocabulary assessments are, for the most part, restricted in their use by trained professionals and/or are costly. These restrictions limit their use, especially for research purposes. To circumvent these limitations, the Raney Vocabulary Measure was created for assessing vocabulary proficiency, specifically for research purposes. The measure consists of 30 questions where participants were instructed to choose the best definition of each word. The purpose of the study was to examine the utility of the new measure using the highly standardized but protected Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Results from the linear combination of the subscales revealed the significant prediction of the Raney Vocabulary Measure, with the Vocabulary subtest contributing most to the unique variance. These results support that the test examines vocabulary ability. The current results are promising as the test would allow for greater accessibility for researchers who do not have access to restricted psychometric tests.

Observing eye movements and the influence of cognition during a symbol search task: a comparison across three age groups.

This study examined eye movements during a visual search task as well as cognitive abilities within three age groups. The aim was to explore scanning patterns across symbol grids and to better understand the impact of symbol location in AAC displays on speed and accuracy of symbol selection. For the study, 60 students were asked to locate a series of symbols on 16 cell grids. The EyeLink 1000 was used to measure eye movements, accuracy, and response time. Accuracy was high across all cells. Participants had faster response times, longer fixations, and more frequent fixations on symbols located in the middle of the grid. Group comparisons revealed significant differences for accuracy and reaction times. The Leiter-R was used to evaluate cognitive abilities. Sustained attention and cognitive flexibility scores predicted the participants' reaction time and accuracy in symbol selection. Findings suggest that symbol location within AAC devices and individuals' cognitive abilities influence the speed and accuracy of retrieving symbols.

The use of the Duchenne marker and symmetry of the expression in the judgment of smiles in schizophrenia.

Research has recurrently shown that individuals with schizophrenia have impairments in emotional facial recognition and this deficit has been associated with aberrant visual scanning of the face. Because human beings have the ability to control the expression of emotion, the communication process becomes more complex. The goal of the current study was to conduct a systematic examination of the response pattern and perceptual-attentional processing in distinguishing smiles with the presence and absence of the Duchenne marker and symmetry and asymmetry of the activation in individuals with schizophrenia. Sixteen individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and 16 control individuals were asked to judge whether the smiles were really happy or not. Individuals with schizophrenia produced fewer expected responses than controls in judging the symmetric non-Duchenne smile as not really happy. In addition, like their healthy counterparts, individuals with schizophrenia showed difficulty with the judgement of asymmetric Duchenne smiles. In addition to not being as sensitive to the cues, individuals with schizophrenia show differences in their viewing patterns. While the current study does not provide clear links between these viewing patterns and judgment responses, future research should explore other explanations, such as explicit knowledge, for the differences in results.

The impact of familiarization strategies on the missing-letter effect.

When reading a text and searching for a target letter, readers make more omissions of the target letter if it is embedded in frequent function words than if it is in rare content words. While word frequency effects are consistently found, few studies have examined the impacts of passage familiarity on the missing-letter effect and studies that have present conflicting evidence. The present study examines the effects of passage familiarity, as well as the impacts of passage familiarization strategy promoting surface or deep encoding, on the missing-letter effect. Participants were familiarized with a passage by retyping a text, replacing all common nouns with synonyms, or generating a text on the same topic as that of the original text, and then completed a letter search task on the familiar passage as well as an unfamiliar passage. In Experiment 1, when both familiar and unfamiliar passages use the same words, results revealed fewer omissions for the retyping and synonyms conditions. However, in Experiment 2, when different words are used in both types of texts, no effect of familiarization strategy was observed. Furthermore, the missing-letter effect is maintained in all conditions, adding support to the robustness of the effect regardless of familiarity with the text.

Distinction between fear and surprise: an interpretation-independent test of the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis.

The perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis posits that the confusion between emotional facial expressions of fear and surprise may be due to their visual similarity, with shared muscle movements. In Experiment 1 full face images of fear and surprise varying as a function of distinctiveness (mouth index, brow index, or both indices) were displayed in a gender oddball task. Experiment 2, in a similar task, directed attention toward the eye or mouth region with a blurring technique. The current two studies used response time and event-related potentials (ERP) to test the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis. While ERP results for Experiment 1 suggested that individuals may not have perceived a difference between the emotional expressions in any of the conditions, response time results suggested that individuals processed a difference between fear and surprise when a distinctive cue was in the mouth. With directed attention in Experiment 2, ERP results indicated that individuals were capable of detecting a difference in all the conditions. In effect, the current two experiments suggest that participants display difficulty in distinguishing the prototypes of fear and surprise with the eye region, which may be due to a lack of attention to that region, providing support for the attentional limitation hypothesis.

Attentional bias toward alcohol-related stimuli in heavy drinkers: evidence from dynamic eye movement recording.

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that attentional biases toward alcohol stimuli are contributing factors maintaining problematic drinking behavior. OBJECTIVE: The main goal of the present set of studies was to provide an examination of dynamic attentional mechanisms associated with alcohol consumption derived from eye movement monitoring. METHOD: Undergraduate students were recruited for two studies. In Experiment 1, 80 students were exposed to complex scenes (containing alcohol-related cues or not) viewed at a self-determined presentation rate. In Experiment 2, 80 students were exposed to the stimuli for a fixed presentation time and asked to memorize the photographs. In both studies, participants completed the Khavari Alcohol Test (KAT) to measure their drinking behaviors. RESULTS: Experiment 1 revealed that alcohol consumption was unrelated to eye movement measures on alcohol-related objects within pictures. However, results of Experiment 2 indicated that saccades into and out of the alcohol-related zones were more frequent as alcohol consumption increased. The time spent and the speed of the first fixation in the alcohol-related zone did not explain the variance in alcohol consumption. CONCLUSION: Attentional biases associated with alcohol consumption might be better understood in terms of dynamic attention mechanisms. More precisely, heavy drinker's attention seems to be constantly drawn back to alcohol-related objects once they are first fixated and when attention is enforced through other cognitive demands. From a clinical viewpoint, dynamic attentional biases might contribute to the development or maintenance of alcohol-related problems and this observation might help guide attention-based interventions.