RECOGNITION OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION BY CHINESE ADULTS WITH MENTAL-RETARDATION

We compared the ability of Chinese adults with mental retardation and nonhandicapped Chinese children to recognize the six basic facial expr essions of emotion. Each subject was told a story identifying an emoti on, presented with an array of six photographs of basic facial express ions of emotion, and asked to point to the photograph that depicted th e story's emotion. Results showed that the children were more accurate than the adults in recognizing facial expressions of emotion except h appiness on which both groups achieved 100% accuracy. Surprise, fear, anger, and disgust were confused most often by both groups. Recognitio n proficiency was not significantly correlated with age in the childre n or with IQ in the adults. Our results partially replicated those rep orted in earlier studies with non-Chinese individuals with mental reta rdation and raised the possibility that there may be cultural influenc es on a person's ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion.