This study investigated factors that influenced haptic recognition of tactile pictures by early blind children. Such a research is motivated by the difficulty to identify tactile pictures, that is, two-dimensional representations of objects, while it is the most common way to depict the surrounding world to blind people. Thus, it is of great interest to better understand whether an appropriate representative technique can make objects' identification more effective and to what extent a technique is uniformly suitable for all blind individuals. Our objective was to examine the effects of three techniques used to illustrate pictures (raised lines, thermoforming, and textures), and to find out if their effect depended on participants' level of use of tactile pictures. Twenty-three early blind children (half with a regular or moderate level of use of tactile pictures, and half with either no use or infrequent use) were asked to identify 24 pictures of eight objects designed as the pictures currently used in the tactile books and illustrated using these three techniques. Results showed better recognition of textured pictures than of thermoformed and raised line pictures. Participants with regular or moderate use performed better than participants with no or infrequent use. Finally, the effect of illustration technique on picture recognition did not depend on prior use of tactile pictures. To conclude, early and frequent use of tactile material develops haptic proficiency and textures have a facilitating effect on picture recognition whatever the user level. Practical implications for the design of tactile pictures are discussed in the conclusion.

Two experiments addressed the issue of age-related differences and emotion-specific patterns in emotion regulation during adolescence. Experiment 1 examined emotion-specific patterns in the effectiveness of reappraisal and distraction strategies in 14-year-old adolescents (N = 50). Adolescents were instructed to answer spontaneously or to downregulate their responses by using either distraction or cognitive reappraisal strategies before viewing negative pictures and were asked to rate their emotional state after picture presentation. Results showed that reappraisal effectiveness was modulated by emotional content but distraction was not. Reappraisal was more effective than distraction at regulating fear or anxiety (threat-related pictures) but was similar to distraction regarding other emotions. Using the same paradigm, Experiment 2 examined in 12-year-old (N = 56), 13-year-old (N = 49) and 15-year-old adolescents (N = 54) the age-related differences a) in the effectiveness of reappraisal and distraction when implemented and b) in the everyday use of regulation strategies using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Results revealed that regulation effectiveness was equivalent for both strategies in 12-year-olds, whereas a large improvement in reappraisal effectiveness was observed in 13- and 15-year-olds. No age differences were observed in the reported use of reappraisal, but older adolescents less frequently reported using distraction and more frequently reported using the rumination strategy. Taken together, these experiments provide new findings regarding the use and the effectiveness of cognitive regulation strategies during adolescence in terms of age differences and emotion specificity.

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Facial expressions of emotion are nonverbal behaviors that allow us to interact efficiently in social life and respond to events affecting our welfare. This article reviews 21 studies, published between 1932 and 2015, examining the production of facial expressions of emotion by blind people. It particularly discusses the impact of visual experience on the development of this behavior from birth to adulthood. After a discussion of three methodological considerations, the review of studies reveals that blind subjects demonstrate differing capacities for producing spontaneous expressions and voluntarily posed expressions. Seventeen studies provided evidence that blind and sighted spontaneously produce the same pattern of facial expressions, even if some variations can be found, reflecting facial and body movements specific to blindness or differences in intensity and control of emotions in some specific contexts. This suggests that lack of visual experience seems to not have a major impact when this behavior is generated spontaneously in real emotional contexts. In contrast, eight studies examining voluntary expressions indicate that blind individuals have difficulty posing emotional expressions. The opportunity for prior visual observation seems to affect performance in this case. Finally, we discuss three new directions for research to provide additional and strong evidence for the debate regarding the innate or the culture-constant learning character of the production of emotional facial expressions by blind individuals: the link between perception and production of facial expressions, the impact of display rules in the absence of vision, and the role of other channels in expression of emotions in the context of blindness.

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