Children's Knowledge of Facial Expressions of Emotions: Distinguishing Fear and Surprise

The abilities of children to distinguish between facial patterns of fear and surprise were investigated. Sixty children, 5 to 10 years old, were administered a recognition task of facial expressions and were asked to identify the facial differences shown in these emotions. The recognition accuracy was found to be related to the amount of contrast between the facial patterns of fear and surprise. Older children were more successful than younger children in both tasks. The results also revealed that children's ability to detect the distinctive action units of fear and surprise emerges later than the ability to recognize these emotions. Results are discussed in terms of perceptual development and type of knowledge (implicit vs. explicit).