March 3, 20260 citationsOpen Access

Single-trial task of facial emotion recognition: What the data say?

NKNadežda Krstić SLStaša Lalatović MMMiroslava Medić-Ivanovski

Key Points

Facial emotion recognition accuracy is highest for happiness among adolescents, particularly in the typically developing group.
Significant group differences in performance were found, with recognition rates for basic emotions averaging 0.64 in higher IQ groups.
Assessment used a photo-based instrument and demonstrated moderate correlation with IQ in the mildly intellectually disturbed group.
The lack of agreement between self-assessed emotional understanding and actual recognition abilities suggests a disconnect in perceived versus measured competencies.

Abstract

Aims: The performance on a simple facial emotion recognition task was analysed in a group of adolescents against their IQ and self-assessed competence of emotional perception and understanding. Method: Ability to recognize a total of eight emotional expressions was assessed by ad hoc devised 8-item photo-based instrument in three groups of higher secondary school students: typically developing (TD), n=95; borderline IQ (B), n=44; mildly intellectually disturbed (MID), n=60. Results: Reliability was observed to be α=.68 based on the overall sample. The instrument discriminated between groups (F(2,196)=23.06, p<.001, η2=.19) and emotions; recognition accuracy rates were higher for happiness (TD, 98.9%; B, 86.4%; MID, 73.3%) compared to other emotions and for six basic emotions (M=0.64, SD=0.26) compared to additional two (M=0.30, SD=0.38). Apart from moderate correlation with IQm in MID group (r(58)=.32, p=.01), no other correlations to IQ scores were established. Regression model consisting of both IQ scores explained 11.3% of the variation in basic emotion recognition in combined sample of B+MID groups (F(2,101)=7.54, p=.001, adjusted R2=.113), but only IQm proved to be significant predictor (β=.27, p=.008). There was no congruence of ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions with self-assessed competence to perceive and understand emotions measured by cross-culturally validated scale (1). Discussion: However scarce, our data fit well into evidence on basic emotion recognition in intellectually disturbed and typical population (2,3). Despite the issue of reliability of such a plain measure, discriminative efficacy of facial emotions as single-stimuli objects appeared to be decent. The lack of agreement with the selfassessed ability of emotional perception speaks once more against breezy mixing of self-assessment and performance measures of joined constructs. Conclusions: Facial emotion recognition continues to be clear and sound cue to emotional processing even when assessed with the simplest of possible tasks.

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