Age Effects on Emotion Recognition in Facial Displays: From 20 to 89 Years of Age

Abstract

Background/Study Context: An emotion recognition task that morphs emotional facial expressions from an initial neutral expression to distinct increments of the full emotional expression was administered to 482 individuals, 20 to 89 years of age.

Methods: Participants assessed six basic emotions at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the full facial expression.

Results: Participants in the three oldest age groups (60s, 70s, and 80s) demonstrated decreased performance for the recognition of the fear, anger, and sad emotions. Increased age was associated with increased recognition rates for the disgust expression, whereas no age effect was detected for the happy and surprise expressions. Covariate analyses revealed age effects were reduced by processing speed, but were unaffected by decision-making ability. The effects of age on individual emotions and levels of presentation are discussed.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that age has the greatest impact on the recognition of the sad emotion and the greatest age effect at the 50% level of presentation across the adult life span.

Notes

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.