Facial expressions of mentally retarded and nonretarded children: I. Recognition by mentally retarded and nonretarded adults.

Mentally retarded and nonretarded adults' ability to recognize happiness, anger, sadness, and neutral affect from slides of young mentally retarded and nonretarded children was investigated. Recognizing affects in others is part of social awareness and necessary for successful social interactions. Retarded adults recognized fewer facial expressions than did nonretarded adults. Nonretarded children's expressions were identified more accurately than were those of retarded children. Happiness was recognized best. Retarded adults used the label "happy" most often, whereas nonretarded adults used the label "neutral" most often. Absence of affect (neutral) was recognized least well by retarded adults. Neutral and sad were confounded most often by nonretarded adults, whereas retarded adults confounded angry and sad most often.