Recognition by children of 3-5 years of emotional face expression of people of different age

There was studied the role of the model’s age in the successful recognition of emotional expression in peers, adolescents, adults and the elderly by preschoolers. The study aimed to identify the relationship between the successful recognition of emotions in people of different ages and the development of the theory of mind as the ability to understand mental states of other people, including by the external manifestations in their behavior. To assess the performance of recognition, there was created a database of photographs of people from four age groups in which the models showed happiness, sadness, fear and anger. In each series, children were given photographs of one person, and their task was to answer whether the person in the picture was joyful, sad, scared, or angry. The development of the theory of mind ability was evaluated with the help of tests showing understanding of the first and second level visual perspectives, a source of knowledge and false beliefs. The study involved 60 three- and five-year-old children attending kindergartens in Moscow. In order to process the obtained data, the U-criterion, the Z-criterion and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used. The results of the study demonstrated age-related dynamics in the recognition of basic emotions by children of preschool age and the relationship between the emotion recognition and the theory of mind. No significant preferences were found in recognizing the emotions of their own age group; however, five-year-old children were better at recognizing emotions by the facial expression on children’s faces (peers and adolescents) than those of adults and older people. Interpretation of the results assumes possible impact of interaction experience with peers.