老年人模糊表情识别的积极效应及其机制

The Positivity Effect of Ambiguous Facial Expressions Recognition and Its Mechanism in Older Adults

研究通过两个实验探讨老年人模糊表情识别的积极效应及其机制。实验1以老年人和年轻人对模糊表情的识别正确率为指标,考察老年人对模糊表情的识别特征。结果发现年轻人对快乐模糊表情和愤怒模糊表情识别的正确率不存在显著差异,而老年人对快乐模糊表情识别的正确率显著高于愤怒和悲伤模糊表情,表明老年人在模糊表情识别上存在积极效应。实验2进一步考察老年人模糊表情识别积极效应的机制。结果发现老年人识别愤怒-快乐表情连续体的转折点显著小于年轻人,但在转折点处的斜率上与年轻人不存在显著差异。研究表明,老年人对模糊表情的识别存在积极效应,该效应源于老年人对积极表情持更宽松的判断标准。

Previous studies found an age-related shift away from negative information for older adults,known as the positivity effect.However,these studies largely utilize facial expressions with clear emotional meaning that does not capture the oft-ambiguous nature of real-world situations.Therefore,the present study aimed to investigate the positive effects of ambiguous expression recognition and its mechanisms in older adults.Study 1 showed that the accuracy difference between happy and angry ambiguous expressions was not significant among younger adults.Ol-der adults recognized happy ambiguous expressions significantly more correctly than angry and sad ambiguous ex-pressions.These results indicated a positive effect of ambiguous expression recognition in older adults.Study 2 fur-ther compared the differences in shift point and slope in identifying morphed expressions between younger and older adults,which reflected the response bias and perceptual sensitivity of expressions recognition.The results found that the shift points were significantly larger for younger adults than for older adults.In contrast,the slope differ-ence between older and younger adults was not significant.The present study found a positivity effect on ambiguous expression recognition in older adults,which could be attributed to the response bias for positive expression.