Childhood cognitive development Flashcards
What information do we obtain from faces?
- Eye gaze
- Lip reading
- facial expressions and emotion
- identity
- facial emblems
Key areas of the brain involved in facial recognition?
RHS of brain
- Inferior occipital gyrus
- Fusiform gyrus
- spans across the basal surface of the temporal and occipital lobes
Facial expressions - what controls them? Different types?
- Can be posed or spontaneous
- control of facial muscles via the facial area nucleus in the pons
What is the FACS and who came up with idea? (Ekman and Friesen, 1978)
Facial Affect Coding System – Ekman and Friesen, 1978
Measures facial emblems based on small movements - 33 action units in total in the face (eg one being raising of the eyebrows
Different combinations of action units combine to form facial expressions
What is the facial EMG and how is it useful in study of facial expression? – Who?
Measures non visible changes – measures muscle activity and therefore emotion
Schwartz et al, 1976
2 routes of activation of the facial nerve nucleus ?
Emotional arousal – direct result of emotion/feeling
Posed expression - not as a result of true emotion
Route taken - facial expression in emotional arousal?
Hypothalamus –> limbic area –> extrapyramidal tract –> facial nerve nucleus
This area of the cortex is lateralised (therefore giving rise to symmetrical facial expressions)
Route taken - facial expression in posed facial expression?
Motor cortex –> extrapyramidal tract –> facial nerve muscles
Area of cortex which gives rise to posed facial expressions NOT lateralised therefore posed facial expressions more clear on the left hand side of the face
Facial expressions consistent across cultures?
- Pain
- anger
- happiness
- sadness
- shame
- disgust / contempt
- suprise
- fear
- interest
Infant first expressions - seen at which time points (newborn, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months?)
Automatic, primitively produced facial expressions
Reflect the inner state of the infant
Newborn – crying, disgust and reflexive smiles
3 months - real smiles
4 months - anger
6 months - fear
Non-human primate facial expression - what was shown by experiments in primates (Ekman, 1982)?
Origins of expressions are seen in primates
Ekman (1982) - They have more combinations of facial expressions than us – more reliant on face than language for communication
Expressions are biologically driven??
Cultural differences in facial expression?
Most facial expressions innate (supported by Ekman, 1982 and Thompson, 1941)
Amount the facial expression is USED different from culture to culture (contextual appropriateness etc) –> this is controlled therefore by route 2
- Cultural differences accounted for by Route 2!!
What are expression display rules?
Study (Friesen, 1972)
Cultural rules about the kind and intensity of facial expression
Rules learnt through socialisation
Operate via route 2
Friesen (1972) demonstrated differences in display rules between US and Japanese citizens – cross cultural differences in display rules seen
Deception - what route? What does it lead to and why does this happen?
Signs of deception?
–> Deception occurs via a blend of routes 1 and 2. Be ause these 2 pathways blend, it leads to ‘verbal leakage’ , wherby route 1 will ‘leak out’ true feelings due to the conflict in pathways
–> Lying is physiologically arousing
Physiological signs include: blushing, asymmetrical facial expression, quickly onset and abruptly ending facial expressions
Features of highly motivated adult liars?
- Dilated pupils
- Raised pitch
- over control of blinking
- negative statements
- speech aversion
