The profile of cognitive response to facial expressions in 6- to 12-month-old infants

Abstract

Objective To explore the profile of cognitive response to five facial expressions in 6-to 12-month-old infants. Method One hundred and fifty-five 6-to 12-month-old healthy infants were recruited to view five kinds of normative facial emotional expression pictures which presented on computer screen. The visual attention, self emotional and behavioral responses of each infant toward the facial expressions were recorded by a web camera and then were coded and analyzed from the videotaped observations. Results The visual preference to expressions was different in different groups. 6-to 8-month-old infants looked back ( such as 1.50 ± 0.73,1.39 ±0.81,1.67 ±0.87 ) more to all expressions than 9-to 12-month-old infants( 1.10 ± 0.53,1.04 ± 0.51,1.12 ±0. 61 ). 6-to 8-month-old infants exhibited no obvious difference(P＞ 0.05 ) while 9-to 12-month-old infants exhibited significant difference in self emotional responses (include positive and negative) to different expressions (P ＜0. 05 ). Infants appeared some positive behaviors including looking back at mother,finger-pointing and phonating to expressions during the observation. Conclusions Infants over 6-month-age could discriminate different facial expressions,recognize and comprehend happy expression earlier. 9-to 12-month-old infants began to understand the negative emotional significance of negative facial expressions gradually, but their comprehension to negative emotional expressions was rudimentary. Key words: Infant; Facial expression; Cognition