Effects of intelligence level and place of residence on the ability of individuals with mental retardation to identify facial expressions.
Clients with moderate intellectual disability need more teaching trials for emotion recognition—start with happy faces and add heart-rate checks when photo tasks fail.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested the adults with intellectual disability. Half had mild ID, half had moderate ID.
Each person looked at photos of faces showing six emotions. They had to name the feeling and match it to another face.
Testing happened in both group homes and day centers to see if place mattered.
What they found
People with mild ID got a large share right. People with moderate ID got a large share right.
Happy faces were easiest for everyone. Fear and anger were hardest.
Where people lived made no difference. IQ level was the key factor.
How this fits with other research
Repp et al. (1992) found the same IQ gap ten years earlier. Their study showed mild-ID adults beat moderate-ID adults, just like here.
Lennox et al. (2005) adds brain science. They found kids with mild ID use separate brain paths for face identity and emotions. This helps explain why our participants could learn emotions even if face memory was weak.
Meyns et al. (2012) looked at people with severe ID who couldn't do photo tasks. They used heart rate instead. When clients saw scary pictures, their heart rate dropped. This gives us another way to check emotions when photo tests are too hard.
Why it matters
When teaching emotion recognition, start with happy faces for all clients. Give clients with moderate ID twice as many trials for fear and anger. If a client can't do photo tasks, try checking heart rate with a finger pulse-oximeter during emotional moments.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study was designed to investigate the abilities of individuals with mental retardation to recognize and match emotional facial expressions from a series of photographs depicting various facial expressions. There were four groups of participants according to their place of residence (community or institution) and their intelligence level (mild or moderate). Each individual participated in two tasks: (1) recognizing a facial expression from an array of three pictures presented, and (2) matching a facial expression from one picture with a picture depicting a similar emotion from an array of three pictures. All information was presented to the participants in the native language, Hebrew. The six facial expressions used for the study included happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust. The ability to recognize and match facial expressions was significantly higher for individuals with mild than moderate mental retardation. There was no significant difference for place of residence. Happiness was the easiest feeling to recognize and match for all groups. Fear and anger were the most difficult to recognize, while sadness and anger were most difficult to match.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2002 · doi:10.1016/s0891-4222(02)00139-7