Clear and complex facial expressions of emotion, and their recognition by pre-adolescents, adolescents and young adults.

To study developmental trends in the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion, the present study tested a new set of facial expressions of emotions developed with Italian young adults (Italian Test of Emotional Facial Expressions TIEFE, e.g., Zammuner, 2008). The set consisted of 28 facial expressions of the 6 basic emotions - happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear, and anger - plus neutral expressions; 14 stimuli were ambiguous (or complex), and 14 were ‘clear’. Subjects were Italian pre-adolescents (12-13 year-olds), adolescents (14-17 year-olds) and young adults (over 18-year-olds), boys and girls, who were asked to perform two tasks: (a) subjects were given 12 labels and had to select the one that best fit each facial expression of TIEFE, (b) subjects recalled and briefly described a personal event that elicited in them happiness, sadness, fear, and anger. The results showed that the recognition of emotional facial expressions generally increased with age and varies as a function of (i) encoder’s and decoder’s sex, (ii) clarity of expression, e.g., intense, clear, single emotion versus ambivalent/complex emotion, and (iii) emotion type. The study moreover indicates that the new Italian set of facial expressions of emotions is suitable for use with population samples of different ages.