Recognition of facial expressions of emotion by Chinese adults with mental retardation

Abstract

We compared the ability of Chinese adults with mental retardation and nonhandicapped Chinese children to recognize the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Each subject was told a story identifying an emotion, presented with an array of six photographs of basic facial expressions of emotion, and asked to point to the photograph that depicted the story's emotion. Results showed that the children were more accurate than the adults in recognizing facial expressions of emotion except happiness on which both groups achieved 100% accuracy. Surprise, fear, anger, and disgust were confused most often by both groups. Recognition proficiency was not significantly correlated with age in the children or with IQ in the adults. Our results partially replicated those reported in earlier studies with non-Chinese individuals with mental retardation and raised the possibility that there may be cultural influences on a person's ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion.