DOI:10.6129/CJP.202203_64(1).0001
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2022, Vol.64, No.1, 1-32

Age-related Differences in Facial Expression Discrimination in Adults in Taiwan

Ya-Ju Li（Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University；Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences, National Chung Cheng University）；Gary Chon-Wen Shyi（Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University；Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences and Advanced Institute of Manufacturing with High-tech Innovations, National Chung Cheng University）

Abstract

Prior research has indicated that older adults have worse ability in identifying some specific facial expressions than younger adults. In this research, we adopted Taiwanese Face Database and developed five tasks. The tasks were designed to assess different aspects of discriminating facial expressions that may have implications for revealing differences between younger and older adults regarding their abilities to process facial expressions. Two studies were conducted: In Study 1, we collected young adults’ performances on the five tasks to establish the norms for comparison. In Study 2, we collected performances of older adults and compared them with those of young adults. However, due to the time and physical constraints, older adults only participated in the first three tasks. Results of Study 1 showed that young adults were better at discriminating between positive and negative facial expressions (e.g., happy vs. other negative expressions) than discriminating between negative expressions (e.g., angry vs. disgusted). Results of Study 2 showed that in general, older adults discriminated negative facial expressions less well than younger adults did. In addition, older adults exhibited inferior performances when compared to younger adults in discriminating between happy and negative expressions, and discriminating between neutral and negative expressions. However, whether these findings can be construed as evidence to support the positivity effect among elderly people requires further investigation. In summary, the present research not only developed a tool for assessing abilities in discriminating facial expressions, but also found age differences in these abilities. The findings can potentially be used to design activities that may help older adults improve their abilities in discriminating facial expressions, and elevate the quality of their social lives.

Keywords: facial expressions, expression discrimination, age differences