Emotional faces in context: Age differences in recognition accuracy and scanning patterns.

Abstract

While age-related declines in facial expression recognition are well documented, previous research relied mostly on isolated faces devoid of context. We investigated the effects of context on age differences in recognition of facial emotions and in visual scanning patterns of emotional faces. While their eye movements were monitored, younger and older participants viewed facial expressions (i.e., anger, disgust) in contexts that were emotionally congruent, incongruent, or neutral to the facial expression to be identified. Both age groups had highest recognition rates of facial expressions in the congruent context, followed by the neutral context, and recognition rates in the incongruent context were worst. These context effects were more pronounced for older adults. Compared to younger adults, older adults exhibited a greater benefit from congruent contextual information, regardless of facial expression. Context also influenced the pattern of visual scanning characteristics of emotional faces in a similar manner across age groups. In addition, older adults initially attended more to context overall. Our data highlight the importance of considering the role of context in understanding emotion recognition in adulthood.

Aging and emotions: experience, regulation, and perception

“…There is also little evidence that physical context (e.g., the background scene) eliminates age differences in emotion perception. Older adults pay more attention to the physical context than young adults [40,41], and attending to congruent contextual information (e.g., a disgusting bathroom scene depicted behind a disgusted face) improves older adults’ emotion perception accuracy [40]. However, the inclusion of context does not fully account for observed age differences in emotion perception accuracy, as younger adults outperform older adults even when congruent contextual information is presented [41].…”

Developmental changes in the primacy of facial cues for emotion recognition.

“…However, they rely heavily on bodily cues when identifying emotions they are uncertain about (Mondloch, 2012). Moreover, compared with younger adults, older adults allocate greater attention toward contextual information relative to facial cues (Noh & Isaacowitz, 2013). This research provides evidence for age-related changes in how individuals combine facial and contextual information in emotion processing.…”

“…One view holds that features of facial musculature alone are both necessary and sufficient cues for an observer to recognize another’s emotion (e.g., Buck, 1994; Ekman, 1992). The alternative view is that contextual information beyond the face—body postures, gestures, or emotionally charged objects and scenes, for example—is necessary for emotion recognition (e.g., Aviezer et al, 2008; Carroll & Russell, 1996; Noh & Isaacowitz, 2013). There is some empirical support for both of these theories; however, relatively little data exist on possible developmental changes that might integrate these contrasting perspectives.…”

Bringing an Ecological Perspective to the Study of Aging and Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions: Past, Current, and Future Methods

“…In other words, adding contextual information to the typical emotion recognition task may attenuate age differences in emotion recognition while at the same time increasing the ecological validity of the task. For example, while recent research has suggested that even young adults will use contextual information in their judgment of facial expressions (Aviezer et al, 2008), the effects of context on judgments may be even more pronounced for older individuals (Noh & Isaacowitz, in prep). This would be consistent with studies from the cognitive aging literature suggesting that older adults rely on context as a compensatory strategy (Hess, 2005; Li, Lindenberger, Freund, & Baltes, 2001; Smith et al, 1998), and also that they may be more likely to outsource certain types of processing to external cues (Spieler, Mayr, & LaGrone, 2006).…”