Emotion categorization across the life span: Multiple domains and opportunities for enhancement

Project C3’s first aim is to study the effects of further emotion domains (music, visual scenes) and varieties of emotional stimuli we encounter in everyday life (e.g., faces of various ages) on the development of emotional categories. The second central aim is to develop and test practical applications of our research, by attempting to enhance the processing and expression of emotions in faces and words. To this end we will investigate whether modifications of gaze behavior can be entrained to improve emotional categorization. We will also study factors driving individuals’ emotional granularity in narrations, and attempt to improve their verbal granularity through an intervention based on enriched verbal input. The research program includes participants across the life span (from infancy to older adulthood) as well as special populations (Developmental Language Disorder).

former project-related publications

Bahn , D., Vesker , M., García Alanis , J.C. , Schwarzer , G., & Kauschke , C. (2017). Age-dependent positivity bias in children’s perception of emotion terms. Frontiers in Psychology, 8:1268. find paper

Bahn, D., Kauschke, C., Vesker, M., & Schwarzer, G. (2018). Perception of valence and arousal in German emotion terms: a comparison between 9-year-old children and adults. Applied Psycholinguistics, 39(3), 463-481. find paper

Bahn, D., Kauschke, C., Vesker, M., & Schwarzer, G. (2021). A Multimodal Comparison of Emotion Categorization Abilities in Children With Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 64(3), 993-1007. find paper

Billino, J., van Belle, G., Rossion, B., & Schwarzer, G. (2018). The nature of individual face recognition in preschool children: Insights from a gaze-contingent paradigm. Cognitive Development, 47, 168-180. find paper

Kauschke C., Bahn , D., Vesker , M., & Schwarzer , G. (2017). Die semantische Repräsentation von Emotionsbegriffen bei Kindern im Grundschulalter. Kindheit und Entwicklung find paper

Kauschke, C. (2019). Linguistische Perspektiven auf Emotion und Sprache. In Emotionen (pp. 262-271). JB Metzler, Stuttgart. find paper

Kauschke, C., Bahn, D., Vesker, M., & Schwarzer, G. (2019). The role of emotional valence for the processing of facial and verbal stimuli–positivity or negativity bias?. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1654. find paper

Ludwig, D., Schwarzer, G., & Kauschke, C. (2016). Positiv oder Negativ? – Verarbeitung von Emotionsbegriffen und Gesichtsausdrücken bei Kindern mit typischem und auffälligem Spracherwerb. Logos, 24 (1). 15-23. find paper

Schwarzer, G. (2014). How motor and visual experience shape infants' processing of objects and faces. Child Development Perspectives, 8(4), 213-217. find paper

Vesker, M., Bahn, D., Degé, F., Kauschke, C., & Schwarzer, G. (2019). Identification of Emotional Facial Expressions in a Lab and Over the Internet. Psychology. Journal of Higher School of Economics, 16(3), 571-583. find paper

Vesker, M., Bahn, D., Dege, F., Kauschke, C., Schwarzer, G. (2018). Developmental changes in the categoral processing of positive and negative facial expressions. PLoSOne. 13(8): e0201521. find paper

Vesker, M., Bahn, D., Kauschke, C., & Schwarzer, G. (2021). Developmental Changes in Gaze Behavior and the Effects of Auditory Emotion Word Priming in Emotional Face Categorization. Multisensory Research, 1(aop), 1-21. find paper

Vesker, M., Bahn, D., Kauschke, C., Neumann, M., Sweitzer, C., & Schwarzer, G. (2020). Investigating the effects of embodiment on emotional categorization of faces and words in children and adults.Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2871. find paper

Vesker, M., Bahn, D., Kauschke, C., Tschense, M., Degé, F., & Schwarzer, G. (2018). Auditory Emotion Word Primes Influence Emotional Face Categorization in Children and Adults, but Not Vice Versa. Frontiers in psychology, 9. find paper

Vesker, M., Ludwig, D., Degé, F., Kauschke, C., & Schwarzer, G. (2017). Perceiving Arousal and Valence in Facial Expressions: Differences Between Children and Adults. European Journal of Developmental Psychology. find paper

Vöhringer, I., Poloczek, S., Graf, F., Lamm, B., Teiser, J., Fassbender, I., Freitag, C., Suhrke, J., Teubert, M., Keller, H., Lohaus, A., Schwarzer , G., & Knopf, M. (2015). Is perceptual priming affected by culture? A study with German middle-class and Cameroonian Nso farmer children. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 176(3), 156-170. find paper