Abstract
This study assessed whether presenting 3D face stimuli could facilitate children’s facial expression recognition. Seventy-one children aged between 3 and 6 participated in the study. Their task was to judge whether a face presented in each trial showed a happy or fearful expression. Half of the face stimuli were shown with 3D representations, whereas the other half of the images were shown as 2D pictures. We compared expression recognition under these conditions. The results showed that the use of 3D faces improved the speed of facial expression recognition in both boys and girls. Moreover, 3D faces improved boys’ recognition accuracy for fearful expressions. Since fear is the most difficult facial expression for children to recognize, the facilitation effect of 3D faces has important practical implications for children with difficulties in facial expression recognition. The potential benefits of 3D representation for other expressions also have implications for developing more realistic assessments of children’s expression recognition.
Highlights
This study assessed whether presenting 3D face stimuli could facilitate children’s facial expression recognition
This study examined the role of 3D information in children’s recognition of facial expression
The results showed a significant advantage of this information in the speed of children’s recognition of facial expressions and showed a benefit in improving boys’ recognition of fearful expressions
Summary
This study assessed whether presenting 3D face stimuli could facilitate children’s facial expression recognition. Seventy-one children aged between 3 and 6 participated in the study Their task was to judge whether a face presented in each trial showed a happy or fearful expression. 3D virtual reality can increase the awareness of teenagers about the social and emotional experiences of their classmates[6] These findings show that 3D representations may play an important role in children’s social-cognitive development. The literature suggests that children’s recognition of specific facial expressions develops with age in a rather universal developmental pattern, in which children first learn to recognize happy expression and later for fear. To our knowledge, all studies to date have used 2D photographs or pictures to test children’s recognition of facial expression This limitation makes it difficult to assess the role of 3D shapes in www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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