CONDITIONING WITH FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION - EFFECTS OF CS SEX AND AGE

Two experiments examined the effects of facial expressions of emotion as conditioned stimuli (CSs) on human electrodermal conditioning and o n a continuous measure of expectancy of the shock unconditioned stimul us. In Experiment 1, the CS+ was a picture of a person displaying an a ngry face and CS- was a neutral face. For half of the subjects, the ex pressions were depicted by males, for the other half by females. Male subjects showed larger skin conductance responses to pictures of males than did Females. The responding of female subjects was the same rega rdless of the sex of the person in the picture. In Experiment 2, the C S+ and CS- were pictures of an angry or a happy face. For half of the subjects, the expressions were depicted by adult males, for the other half by preadolescent males. Subjects displayed greater differentiatio n when an adult male depicting anger was employed as the CS+ than when a preadolescent male depicting anger was the CS+. There were no diffe rences when an adult or a child displayed happiness.