Investigates preschool children's ability to discriminate and categorize facial expressions. Four sets of drawings of faces depicted expressions of joy, sadness, surprise, and anger. Each set of drawings contained a "standard" face as well as five choices from which to select a match. (Author/RH)

A preferential looking procedure was used to investigate 7-month-olds' perception of positive and negative affective facial expressions in which a single vocal expression was concordant or discordant with the videotaped facial expression. Results indicated that 7-month-olds discriminated among happy, interested, angry, and sad expressions.…

Investigated three-month-olds' abilities to discriminate and recognize smiling and frowning expressions of mothers and strangers. Discrimination and recognition occurred regardless of the adult who was involved; however, more infants discriminated the mothers' expressions than the strangers', and boys looked at their mothers' faces longer than did…

The production and discrimination of eight basic facial expressions were investigated among 34 preschool children three to five years of age. Children's productions were elicited and videotaped under four different prompting conditions. Children's discrimination of drawings depicting facial expressions, sociometric ratings, and spontaneous…

For the age range tested there is a lag between the perception and production of certain facial expressions. (Authors)

Examines whether three-month-old infants can detect variations within the single expression category of smiling and whether individual differences in infants' sensitivities are related to identifiable mother or infant behaviors. (HOD)