IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v13y2023i4p21582440231214347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study

Author

Listed:
  • Hanlin Ren
  • Liang Huang
  • Fangyuan Du
  • Wenxin Huang
  • Guoyao Lin
  • Mariska E. Kret
  • Shunsen Chen

Abstract

The preschool age is an important period in the development of children’s emotional abilities. The face and body are both vital carriers of emotional information and adults readily match the emotional cues coming from these two modalities. However, it is unknown whether preschoolers have this ability or not. In the current study, 36 preschoolers (22 boys, aged 44–73 months old) participated in an emotional facial and bodily matching test including angry, happy, and neutral expressions (Experiment 1) and an eye-tracking experiment (Experiment 2). The results show that: (1) preschoolers can accurately match three categories of facial and bodily expressions of emotion (all matching rates were above 93% in Experiment 1); (2) robust emotional matching was observed across conditions in Experiment 2. That is, the eye-tracking indexes including the total fixation duration, the first fixation duration, and the fixation count, all indicated that the preschoolers more thoroughly processed bodily expressions of emotion which were congruent to the facial expressions compared to incongruent bodily expressions of emotion. This study shows that the ability to match facial and bodily expressions of emotion develops at an early age. Preschool children have already reached a high level of this ability.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanlin Ren & Liang Huang & Fangyuan Du & Wenxin Huang & Guoyao Lin & Mariska E. Kret & Shunsen Chen, 2023. "Preschoolers Can Match the Facial and Bodily Emotional Expressions: A Behavior and Eye-Tracking Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:21582440231214347
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440231214347
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440231214347
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440231214347?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ng, Wee Qin & Hartanto, Andree, 2022. "The effect of executive function on the development of chronic pain: A prospective longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    2. Huaruo Chen & Qiuyun Hong & Jie Xu & Fei Liu & Ya Wen & Xueying Gu, 2021. "Resilience Coping in Preschool Children: The Role of Emotional Ability, Age, and Gender," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-21, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giedrė Širvinskienė & Dalia Antinienė & Aušra Griciūtė & Liudmila Dulksnienė & Vaidilutė Asisi & Rima Kregždytė & Verena Kerbl & Elfriede Amtmann, 2022. "Effectiveness of the ELLA Training for the Promotion of Emotional and Social Competences in Lithuanian Preschool Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:21582440231214347. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.