Adult judgments and fine-grained analysis of infant facial expressions: Testing the validity of a priori coding formulas.

Three studies tested whether infant facial expressions selected to fit Max formulas (C. E. Izard, 1983) for discrete emotions are recognizable signals of those emotions. Forced-choice emotion judgments (Study 1) and emotion ratings (Study 2) by naive Ss fit Max predictions for slides of infant joy, interest, surprise, and distress, but Max fear, anger, sadness, and disgust expressions in infants were judged as distress or as emotion blends in both studies. Ratings of adult facial expressions (Study 2 only) fit a priori classifications. In Study 3, the facial muscle components of faces shown in Studies 1 and 2 were coded with the Facial Action Coding System (FACS; P. Ekman and W. V. Friesen, 1978) and Baby FACS (H. Oster and D. Rosenstein, in press). Only 3 of 19 Max-specified expressions of discrete negative emotions in infants fit adult prototypes. Results indicate that negative affect expressions are not fully differentiated in infants and that empirical studies of infant facial expressions are needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are max-specified infant facial expressions during face-to-face interaction consistent with differential emotions theory?

Differential emotions theory (DET) proposes that infant facial expressions of emotions are differentiated. To test this hypothesis, the authors examined infant facial expressions longitudinally at 2, 4, and 6 mo of age during face-to-face play and a "still-face" interaction with their mothers. Infant expressions were coded using the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (Max). Consistent with DET, discrete positive expressions occurred more of the time and were of longer duration than blended expressions of positive affect. Contrary to DET, at no age did the proportions or durations of discrete and blended negative expressions differ, and they showed different patterns of developmental change. One is led to either reject or revise DET or else question the adequacy of the Max system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Violation of expectancy, loss of control, and anger expressions in young infants.

This study examined facial expressions in relation to cognition in infants aged 2–8 months. Eighty infants, divided equally among 4 age groups (2, 4, 6, and 8 months) participated. Forty-eight Ss received an audiovisual stimulus contingent on arm movement, and 32 infants did not control the stimulus. Infant facial expressions during learning and extinction were coded using the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX). Infants in the contingent group expressed greater interest and joy during learning and greater anger during extinction. There was a high concordance between arm pulling and the expression of anger during extinction, indicating that a brief exposure to extinction produces frustration-like changes in emotional responsivity. Individual differences existed in infant responses to frustration during extinction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of marital observational measures: The Marital Interaction Coding System and the Communication Skills Test.

The Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS) and the Communication Skills Test (CST) were compared empirically to determine the similarities and differences in the assessment data obtained from these observational measures. Videotaped marital conflict-resolution discussions of 47 married couples were coded with both systems. The results revealed that scores on the summary categories of positive and negative behaviors derived from the MICS and the CST generally were not significantly correlated. Instead, the data from the two coding systems showed different patterns of results. Husband–wife correlations for positive and negative behaviors differed for the two coding systems, and subgroups of distressed (n?=?15) and nondistressed (n?=?15) spouses were discriminated by positive behaviors of the MICS but by negative behaviors on the CST. We consider reasons for the opposing results and suggest directions for improving marital observational coding procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of smoking opportunity on cue-elicited urge: A facial coding analysis.

The authors analyzed smokers' facial expressions using the Facial Action Coding System (P. Ekman & W. V. Friesen. 1978) under varying smoking opportunity conditions. In Experiment 1, smokers first were told that they either could (told-yes) or could not (told-no) smoke during the study. Told-yes smokers reported higher urges than did told-no smokers. Unexpectedly, told-yes smokers became increasingly likely to manifest expressions related to negative affect and less likely to evince expressions related to positive affect, compared with told-no smokers. In Experiment 2, smokers were more likely to show positive affect-related expressions if the delay was 15 s than if it was 60 s. Craving may be related to both a desire to use and an impatient desire to use immediately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classifying chimpanzee facial expressions using muscle action.

The Chimpanzee Facial Action Coding System (ChimpFACS) is an objective, standardized observational tool for measuring facial movement in chimpanzees based on the well-known human Facial Action Coding System (FACS; P. Ekman & W. V. Friesen, 1978). This tool enables direct structural comparisons of facial expressions between humans and chimpanzees in terms of their common underlying musculature. Here the authors provide data on the first application of the ChimpFACS to validate existing categories of chimpanzee facial expressions using discriminant functions analyses. The ChimpFACS validated most existing expression categories (6 of 9) and, where the predicted group memberships were poor, the authors discuss potential problems with ChimpFACS and/or existing categorizations. The authors also report the prototypical movement configurations associated with these 6 expression categories. For all expressions, unique combinations of muscle movements were identified, and these are illustrated as peak intensity prototypical expression configurations. Finally, the authors suggest a potential homology between these prototypical chimpanzee expressions and human expressions based on structural similarities. These results contribute to our understanding of the evolution of emotional communication by suggesting several structural homologies between the facial expressions of chimpanzees and humans and facilitating future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual determinants of anger and other negative expressions in young infants.

Two experiments examined how different frustration contexts affect the instrumental and emotional responses of 4- to 5-month-old infants. Three different frustrating contexts were investigated: loss of stimulation (extinction), reduction in contingent stimulation (partial reinforcement), and loss of stimulus control (noncontingency). In both experiments, changes in arm activity and facial expressions of anger and sadness coded according to the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX) were the measures of frustration. Both experiments showed that (a) arm responses increased when the contingent stimulus was lost or reduced but decreased when control of the stimulus was lost under noncontingency, (b) MAX-coded anger, but not MAX-coded sad or blends of anger and sad, was associated with frustration, and (c) the pattern of anger and arm responses varied with the frustration context. When contingent stimulation was lost or reduced, both anger and arm responses increased, but when expected control was lost under noncontingency, arm responses decreased while anger increased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ontogeny and significance of infants' facial expressions in the first 9 months of life.

Four studies examined aspects of the differential emotions theory (DET) hypothesis of expressive behavior development. In Study 1, facial-expressive movements of 108 2.5–9-mo-old infants were video recorded in positive and negative mother–infant interactions (conditions). As expected, Max-specified full-face and partial expressions of interest, joy, sadness, and anger were morphologically stable between the 2 ages. Studies 1 and 2 confirmed predicted differential responding to mother sadness and anger expressions and to composite positive and negative conditions. Discrete negative expressions exceeded negative blends, and the amount of both expression types remained stable across ages. Studies 3 and 4 provided varying degrees of support for the social validity of Max-specified infant negative affect expressions. Conclusions include revisions and clarifications of DET. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial reactions to smoking cues relate to ambivalence about smoking.

In this study, the authors used the Facial Action Coding System (FACS; P. Ekman & W. V. Friesen, 1978) to examine the immediate facial responses of abstinent smokers exposed to smoking cues. The aim was to investigate whether facial expressions thought to be linked to ambivalence would relate to more traditional measures of ambivalence about smoking. The authors adapted N. A. Heather's (1998) definition of ambivalence about smoking, which emphasizes difficulty in refraining from smoking despite intentions to do so. Ambivalence expressed during smoking cue exposure was operationalized as the simultaneous occurrence of positive and negative affect-related facial expressions. Thirty-four nicotine-deprived dependent smokers were presented with in vivo smoking cues, and their facial expressions were coded using FACS. Participants also completed self-report measures related to ambivalence about smoking. Smokers who displayed ambivalent facial expressions during smoking cue exposure reported significantly higher scores on measures of smoking ambivalence than did those who did not display ambivalent facial expressions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of depression on response to comedy: A dynamic facial coding analysis.

Individuals suffering from depression show diminished facial responses to positive stimuli. Recent cognitive research suggests that depressed individuals may appraise emotional stimuli differently than do nondepressed persons. Prior studies do not indicate whether depressed individuals respond differently when they encounter positive stimuli that are difficult to avoid. The authors investigated dynamic responses of individuals varying in both history of major depressive disorder (MDD) and current depressive symptomatology (N = 116) to robust positive stimuli. The Facial Action Coding System (Ekman & Friesen, 1978) was used to measure affect-related responses to a comedy clip. Participants reporting current depressive symptomatology were more likely to evince affect-related shifts in expression following the clip than were those without current symptomatology. This effect of current symptomatology emerged even when the contrast focused only on individuals with a history of MDD. Specifically, persons with current depressive symptomatology were more likely than those without current symptomatology to control their initial smiles with negative affect-related expressions. These findings suggest that integration of emotion science and social cognition may yield important advances for understanding depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The induced affect response: 10-week-old infants' responses to three emotion expressions.

Responses to mothers' presentations of happy, sad, and angry faces were studied in a sample of 12 infants, 6 boys and 6 girls at age 10 weeks?±?5 days. Each infant's mother displayed noncontingent, practiced facial and vocal expressions of the 3 emotions. Each expression occurred 4 times, with a 20-s head-turn-away between presentations. The orders of presentation were randomly assigned within sex of infant. Mothers' and infants' facial behaviors were coded using the Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System. The data indicated that (a) the infants discriminated each emotion, (b) apparent matching responses may occur under some conditions but not all, and (c) these apparent matching responses were only a part of nonrandom behavior patterns indicating induced emotional or affective responses of infants to mothers' expressions. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Japanese and American infants' responses to arm restraint.

Five- and 12-mo-old Japanese and American infants participated in a nonpainful arm restraint procedure. Facial responses were scored with an anatomically based coding system (Baby FACS, an adaptation for infants of the Facial Action Coding System [FACS; P. Ekman and W. Friesen, 1978]). Nonfacial body activity (struggling) and negative vocalizations also were scored. Results showed that older infants' latencies to negative response were shorter than those of younger infants, and older infants produced proportionately more negative facial behavior. In addition, 5-mo-old American infants produced criterion negative facial expressions more quickly than 5-mo-old Japanese infants. However, infants of both cultures at both ages eventually produced similar facial configurations and nonfacial behaviors. These findings support the hypothesis that infants' emotional facial expressions are universal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attention and reaction to distress in infancy: A longitudinal study.

The primary aim of this study was to verify whether early individual differences in look duration are related to general mechanisms of the infant nervous system that draw together attention and emotion. Thirty-one infants were observed at 3, 5, and 11 months of age. Facial expressions of pain and distress were observed by means of C. Izard's (1979) Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System 90 s after routine pediatric vaccinations. Several measures of visual attention were taken experimentally in a separate testing session. Significant correlations between measures of attention and duration of facial expressions of pain and distress were found at each age level. Infants who showed pain or distress for a shorter time period also paid attention for a shorter time period and vice versa. The main conclusion is that individual differences combining control of both pain and attention can be identified from early infancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facial expression and the affective component of cynical hostility in male coronary heart disease patients.

This study describes the affective component of hostility as measured by the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Ho W. Cook & D. Medley, 1954) by examining the relationship between facial expressions of emotion and Ho scores in 116 male coronary heart disease patients. Patients underwent the videotaped Type A Structured Interview, from which facial expressions were later coded using the Facial Action Coding System. They also completed the Cook-Medley Ho scale. Facial expression of the emotion of contempt was significantly related to Ho scores; anger expression was not. Also, there was a significant interaction between hostility and defensiveness, wherein low-defensive, highly hostile people showed substantially more contempt expression than others. The implications of these findings for the construct validity of Ho and for identifying clinically important subtypes of hostility are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective responses to conflictual discussions in violent and nonviolent couples.

Compared the affective responses of physically aggressive (PA), verbally aggressive (VA), withdrawing (WI), and nondistressed/nonaggressive (ND) couples during 2 10-min problem-oriented discussions. Coding by outside observers was used to evaluate the motor-expressive components of spouses' emotions. Spouses' self-reports immediately following each discussion were used to assess physiological and phenomenological experiences during the discussion as well as to evaluate the external validity of the discussions. In 3 planned comparisons, PA spouses were compared with other conflictual but nonviolent spouses, all 3 groups of conflictual spouses were compared with ND spouses, and WI spouses were compared with VA spouses. Observers reported that PA husbands, compared with VA and WI husbands, exhibited more overtly negative behaviors and reported a more negative emotional state as well as somewhat more physiological arousal. The PA wives differed from the VA and WI wives in their escalating and then deescalating pattern of overt negative behaviors. Both ND wives and husbands were differentiated from all 3 conflictual groups by their low levels of negative affect, high levels of positive affect, and low levels of reported physiological arousal. In most respects, VA and WI spouses were quite similar. Discussion focuses on how these comparatively innocuous affective patterns might be related to extreme expressions of aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When frustration is repeated: Behavioral and emotion responses during extinction over time.

Persistence of instrumental responding and negative facial expressions in response to repeated goal blockage was studied in 53 4-month-old infants. All participants experienced 2 sessions comprising baseline (no stimulation), contingency (stimulation resulting from infant action), and extinction (no stimulation) on consecutive days. Performance criteria identified 2 groups of infants, those who learned in Session 1 (Learning Group 1) and those who learned in Session 2 (Learning Group 2). Individual differences in instrumental responses and facial expression during extinction were compared as a function of learning group. Across sessions, the repetition of extinction for Learning Group 1 was associated with both a persistent instrumental response and anger expressions. The level of instrumental response and anger expression was equivalent to that observed for Learning Group 2 but only in Session 2, the day on which that group learned. Sadness and anger/sadness blended expressions were initially more common in Learning Group 2, but these expressions were attenuated given another exposure to the contingency in Session 2. Implications for the relations among infant emotion, cognition, and behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of normal and perturbed social play on the duration and amplitude of different types of infant smiles.

Different types of smiling varying in amplitude of lip corner retraction were investigated during 2 mother-infant games--peekaboo and tickle--at 6 and 12 months and during normally occurring and perturbed games. Using Facial Action Coding System (FACS), infant smiles were coded as simple (lip corner retraction only), Duchenne (simple plus cheek raising), play (simple plus jaw drop), and duplay (Duchenne plus jaw drop). In addition, again using FACS, the amplitude of lip corner retraction was coded on a 5-point scale. Rather than a single smile expression that differs only in amplitude, the authors found a complex family of different smile expressions differing in their duration and amplitude as a function of game, setup versus climax of the game, and perturbation. Both type of smiling and amplitude of smiling appear to be controlled independently by the infant in relation to the context. These findings reveal systematic and context-specific nuances in infant smiles in the 2nd half of the first year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of alcohol on the marital interactions of aggressive and nonaggressive husbands and their wives.

This study examined the marital interactions of 60 maritally aggressive and 75 nonaggressive men and their wives under a baseline condition, and then after the husband had received no alcohol, a placebo, or alcohol. These sessions were videotaped and coded with the Marital Interaction Coding System by coders who were unaware of group status and specific condition. Aggressive couples exhibited more negative behavior and higher levels of negative reciprocity in the baseline interaction than did nonaggressive couples. The administration of alcohol led husbands, but not wives, to increase their problem-solving attempts. Alcohol, but not the placebo, led to increased negativity of both husbands and wives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Facial Expression Coding System (FACES): Development, validation, and utility.

This article presents information on the development and validation of the Facial Expression Coding System (FACES; A. M. Kring & D. Sloan, 1991). Grounded in a dimensional model of emotion, FACES provides information on the valence (positive, negative) of facial expressive behavior. In 5 studies, reliability and validity data from 13 diverse samples, including students, psychiatric patients, and community adults, are presented, and results indicate that raters can reliably agree on instances of positive and negative expressive behavior. Validity studies indicate that FACES ratings are related in predictable ways to another observational coding system, facial muscle activity, individual-difference measures of expressiveness and personality, skin conductance, heart rate, and reports of experienced emotion. FACES can be a useful tool for assessing expressive behavior in a variety of contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hemispheric aymmetries in adults' perception of infant emotional expressions.

Accounts of emotion lateralization propose either overall right hemisphere (RH) advantage or differential RH vs left hemisphere (LH) involvement depending on the negative–positive valence of emotions. Perceptual studies generally show RH specialization. Yet viewer emotional responses may enhance valence effects. Because infant faces elicit heightened emotion in viewers, perceptual asymmetries with chimeric infant faces were assessed. First, it was determined that chimeras must be paired with their counterparts, not their mirror images, to tap viewers' sensitivity to adult facial asymmetries. Results showed an RH perceptual bias for infant cries but bihemispheric sensitivity to asymmetries in infant smiles. This effect was not due to LH featural vs RH holistic processing and held for additional, intensity-matched, spontaneous expressions. Specialized RH sensitivity to infant cries may reflect an evolutionary advantage for rapid response to infant distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)