Recognition of facial expressions of emotion by adults with intellectual disability: Is there evidence for the emotion specificity hypothesis?

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the emotion recognition abilities of adults (n=23) with an intellectual disability (ID) compared with a control group of children (n=23) without ID matched for estimated cognitive ability. The study examined the impact of: task paradigm, stimulus type and preferred processing style (global/local) on accuracy. We found that, after controlling for estimated cognitive ability, the control group performed significantly better than the individuals with ID. This provides some support for the emotion specificity hypothesis. Having a more local processing style did not significantly mediate the relation between having ID and emotion recognition, but did significantly predict emotion recognition ability after controlling for group. This suggests that processing style is related to emotion recognition independently of having ID. The availability of contextual information improved emotion recognition for people with ID when compared with line drawing stimuli, and identifying a target emotion from a choice of two was relatively easier for individuals with ID, compared with the other task paradigms. The results of the study are considered in the context of current theories of emotion recognition deficits in individuals with ID.

Emotion recognition and processing style in children with an intellectual disability

“…This result differs from that found by Scotland et al (2016), to our knowledge the only other study to have explored processing style and emotion recognition in people with an intellectual disability. These authors found that having a local processing style was related to less accurate emotion recognition, but only when the results from all the participants (adults with an intellectual disability and typically developing children matched on estimated cognitive ability) were combined.…”

“…As both studies used the same emotion and processing Emotion recognition 8 style tasks, it is unlikely that the differing results are due to factors such as the amount and clarity of information available in the emotion stimuli (Martin et al 2012) or the nature and comparative difficulty of the task (D'Souza et al 2016) across the two studies. The ages of the participants did, however, differ, with the study by Scotland et al (2016) including adults, rather than children with an intellectual disability.…”

“…Porter and Coltheart (2006) found differences in attentional processing style in relation to people with an intellectual disability varied according to type of syndrome. Scotland et al (2016) found that, when the results from adults with an intellectual disability and a control group of typically developing children, matched on estimated cognitive ability were combined, having a preferred local processing style was found to be related to poorer emotion recognition.…”

Recognizing primary emotions in communication in adults with intellectual disability

“…Autori ukazuju i na to da intelektualne sposobnosti ne moraju biti u direktnoj vezi sa sposobnošću prepoznavanja emocija (Brosgole et al, 1986; Gioia & Brosgole, 1988, sve prema Rojahn et al, 1995), što se objašnjava navodima da za obradu vizuelno-afektivnih informacija odraslih osoba sa IO nije presudna mentalna starost ispitanika, već postojanje deficita emocionalno-perceptivne prirode, koji su nezavisni od kognitivnog ograničenja, što se u literaturi naziva hipotezom emocionalne specifičnosti (Rojahn et al, 1995). U prilog tome govore i navodi o uticaju lokalnog procesuiranja stimulusa na detekciju emocija kod ovih osoba (Scotland et al, 2016). U kontekstu svega navedenog može se tumačiti i rezultat da ispitanici sa lakom i umerenom IO ostvaruju relativno ujednačena postignuća na zadacima za procenu emocije ljutnje i tuge.…”

Mental Rehabilitation Based on Emotion Regulation Training to Reduce Depression in Students With Physical Disability

“…Overall, these studies show that physical disability can reduce self-esteem [7] and cause mental distress and depression [8]. On the other hand, people with physically disabilities and impairment in the development of motor coordination and abnormal growth are more vulnerable to emotional problems and less capable to control and regulate their emotional reactions [9].…”