Representation of Facial Expressions of Different Ages: A Multidimensional Scaling Study

Abstract

1) Previous studies using facial expressions have revealed valence and arousal as two core dimensions of affective space. However, it remains unknown if the two dimensional structure is consistent across ages. This study investigated affective dimensions using six facial expressions (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, neutral, and sad) at three ages (young, middle-aged, and old). Several studies previously required participants to directly rate subjective similarity between facial expression pairs. In this study, we collected indirect measures by asking participants to decide if a pair of two stimuli conveyed the same emotions. Multidimensional scaling showed that “angry-disgusted” and “sad-disgusted” pairs are similar at all three ages. In addition, “angry-sad,” “angry-neutral,” “neutral-sad,” and “disgusted-fearful” pairs were similar at old age. When two faces in a pair reflect the same emotion, “sad” was the most inaccurate in old age, suggesting that the ability to recognize “sad” decreases with old age. This study suggested that the general two-core dimension structure is robust across all age groups with the exception of specific emotions.