A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Effects of aging on emotion recognition from dynamic multimodal expressions and vocalizations

  2021. Diana S. Cortes (et al.). Scientific Reports 11 (1)

  Article

  Age-related differences in emotion recognition have predominantly been investigated using static pictures of facial expressions, and positive emotions beyond happiness have rarely been included. The current study instead used dynamic facial and vocal stimuli, and included a wider than usual range of positive emotions. In Task 1, younger and older adults were tested for their abilities to recognize 12 emotions from brief video recordings presented in visual, auditory, and multimodal blocks. Task 2 assessed recognition of 18 emotions conveyed by non-linguistic vocalizations (e.g., laughter, sobs, and sighs). Results from both tasks showed that younger adults had significantly higher overall recognition rates than older adults. In Task 1, significant group differences (younger > older) were only observed for the auditory block (across all emotions), and for expressions of anger, irritation, and relief (across all presentation blocks). In Task 2, significant group differences were observed for 6 out of 9 positive, and 8 out of 9 negative emotions. Overall, results indicate that recognition of both positive and negative emotions show age-related differences. This suggests that the age-related positivity effect in emotion recognition may become less evident when dynamic emotional stimuli are used and happiness is not the only positive emotion under study.

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• Investigating individual differences in emotion recognition ability using the ERAM test

  2021. Petri Laukka (et al.). Acta Psychologica 220

  Article

  Individuals vary in emotion recognition ability (ERA), but the causes and correlates of this variability are not well understood. Previous studies have largely focused on unimodal facial or vocal expressions and a small number of emotion categories, which may not reflect how emotions are expressed in everyday interactions. We investigated individual differences in ERA using a brief test containing dynamic multimodal (facial and vocal) expressions of 5 positive and 7 negative emotions (the ERAM test). Study 1 (N = 593) showed that ERA was positively correlated with emotional understanding, empathy, and openness, and negatively correlated with alexithymia. Women also had higher ERA than men. Study 2 was conducted online and replicated the recognition rates from Study 1 (which was conducted in lab) in a different sample (N = 106). Study 2 also showed that participants who had higher ERA were more accurate in their meta-cognitive judgments about their own accuracy. Recognition rates for visual, auditory, and audio-visual expressions were substantially correlated in both studies. Results provide further clues about the underlying structure of ERA and its links to broader affective processes. The ERAM test can be used for both lab and online research, and is freely available for academic research.

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• Effects of aging on emotion recognition from dynamic multimodal expressions and vocalizations

  Diana Cortes S. (et al.).

  Article

  Age-related differences in emotion recognition have predominantly been investigated usingstatic pictures of facial expressions. Previous studies have also mainly studied recognition ofnegative emotions, and positive emotions beyond happiness have rarely been included. Thecurrent study instead used dynamic facial and vocal stimuli, and included a wider than usualrange of positive emotions. In Task 1, younger and older adults were tested for their abilities torecognize 12 positive and negative emotions from brief video recordings presented in visual,auditory and multimodal blocks. Task 2 assessed recognition of 18 positive and negativeemotions conveyed by non-linguistic vocalizations (e.g., laughter, sobs, and sighs). Resultsfrom both tasks showed that younger adults had higher overall recognition rates than olderadults. In Task 1, significant age-related differences (younger > older) were only observed inthe auditory condition, and for relief, anger, and irritation. In Task 2, significant groupdifferences were instead observed for most of the emotions. Overall, results indicate thatrecognition of both positive and negative emotions show age-related differences. This suggeststhat the age-related positivity effect in emotion recognition may become less evident whendynamic emotional stimuli are used and happiness is not the only positive emotion under study.

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• Associations between autistic traits and emotion recognition ability in non-clinical young adults

  2013. Christina Lindahl.

  This study investigated the associations between emotion recognition ability and autistic traits in a sample of non-clinical young adults. Two hundred and forty nine individuals took part in an emotion recognition test, which assessed recognition of 12 emotions portrayed by actors. Emotion portrayals were presented as short video clips, both with and without sound, and as sound only. Autistic traits were assessed using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (ASQ) questionnaire. Results showed that men had higher ASQ scores than women, and some sex differences in emotion recognition were also observed. The main finding was that autistic traits were correlated with several measures of emotion recognition. More specifically, ASQ-scores were negatively correlated with recognition of fear and with recognition of ambiguous stimuli.

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Show all publications by Christina Tornberg at Stockholm University