Inferring emotional states: The development of an automatic process

Children's and adults' use of attention when observing angry emotional expressions was examined. It was hypothesized that adults require little attention to comprehend an emotional expression. In contrast, children, if they are able, should require a considerable portion of their attention to derive the same information. This is referred to as the automation hypothesis, that is, the process of comprehending an emotional expression becomes automatic with age. To test this, two studies were completed. The first study examined a methodology developed to categorize subjects according to their use of attention when observing video-taped emotional expressions. Additionally, this first study tested the basic hypothesis of differences in the use of attention across age: 4-year-olds and adults participated. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the methodology, and provided tentative support for the automation hypothesis, but only female subjects participated. Some adult subjects in this study behaved contrary to predictions, most likely due to experimentation sensitization from participating in previous deception studies. A second study used the methodology to more extensively test the hypotheses. Four-, 6- and 8-year old boys and girls participated in the second study, with the girls again supporting the automation hypothesis. In addition, the PACES (Saarni, 1985) was used to measure how strongly parents advocated socializing their children to control emotional expressivity. It was found that stronger parental advocacy of emotional control was associated with greater automation in children. The automation hypothesis was not supported with the boys. However, results indicate that the methodology was not appropriate for boys. The methodology is reviewed, particularly with regard to incompatibilities with boys. Implications are discussed regarding children's development of an understanding of anger and other emotional states, children's social interactions, and general models of cognitive development.