The recognition of prototypical and non-prototypical facial expressions of emotion. Developmental trends using a new set of stimuli.

Developmental trends in facial expressions of emotion (FEEs) recognition were studied using 28 FEEs from a new set of stimuli (Italian Facial Expressions of Emotions, IFEE, e.g., Zammuner, 2011), depicting 6 emotions plus neutral expressions; FEEs varied for prototypicality level. Participants (N = 438, 10 to 20-year-old) selected for each FEE which of 12 emotion-labels (e.g., anxiety, fear, anger) best described it. Analyses of correct scores for each emotion (e.g., all fear FEEs), all FEEs, and prototypical versus non-prototypical FEEs, showed that recognition (a) is least for fear and anger, (b) is greater for girls than boys, (c) increases from childhood to preadolescence, (e) is better for prototypical expressions; (f) prototypicality-related recognition differences were usually small, showing that recognition includes the ability to perceive subtle emotion cues; (g) age and gender often interacted in the perception of prototypical and non-prototypical expressions.