SCHEMATIC DRAWINGS OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS FOR EMOTION RECOGNITION AND INTERPRETATION BY PRESCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN

Schematic drawings of facial expressions were evaluated as a possible assessment tool for research on emotion recognition and interpretation involving young children. A subset of Ekman and Friesen's (1976) Pict ures of Facial Affect was used as the standard for comparison. Prescho ol children (N = 138) were shown drawings and photographs in two conte xt conditions for six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadne ss, and surprise). The overall correlation between accuracy for the ph otographs and drawings was .677. A significant difference was found fo r the stimulus condition (photographs vs. drawings) but not for the ad ministration condition (label-based vs. context-based). Children were significantly more accurate in interpreting drawings than photographs and tended to be more accurate in identifying facial expressions in th e label-based administration condition for both photographs and drawin gs than in the context-based administration condition.