The perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis posits that the confusion between emotional facial expressions of fear and surprise may be due to their visual similarity, with shared muscle movements. In Experiment 1 full face images of fear and surprise varying as a function of distinctiveness (mouth index, brow index, or both indices) were displayed in a gender oddball task. Experiment 2, in a similar task, directed attention toward the eye or mouth region with a blurring technique. The current two studies used response time and event-related potentials (ERP) to test the perceptual-attentional limitation hypothesis. While ERP results for Experiment 1 suggested that individuals may not have perceived a difference between the emotional expressions in any of the conditions, response time results suggested that individuals processed a difference between fear and surprise when a distinctive cue was in the mouth. With directed attention in Experiment 2, ERP results indicated that individuals were capable of detecting a difference in all the conditions. In effect, the current two experiments suggest that participants display difficulty in distinguishing the prototypes of fear and surprise with the eye region, which may be due to a lack of attention to that region, providing support for the attentional limitation hypothesis.

Understanding emotions is an important predictor of children’s mental health and school adjustment. However, interventions to improve this skill are not always accessible to all children. In 2019, Roy, Dénommée, and Quenneville developed stories with content specifically designed to ‘teach’ about emotions. Because it is a literacy-oriented intervention, it is possible that vocabulary may play a role in learning. This project explored the role of vocabulary in understanding emotion in preschool children and its learning. Forty-three preschoolers (19 control and 24 experimental) were evaluated on vocabulary skills and emotion comprehension. For multiple components, results showed an effect of time of measure, regardless of group. However, the addition of receptive vocabulary as a covariate made this effect non-significant. Results revealed that the stories were an effective strategy in promoting emotion comprehension for Components Belief and Reminder; two skills that are in the process of development in this age group. Furthermore, vocabulary skills did not impact the interaction for Belief for post-test gains and, for Reminder, while emotional vocabulary skills impacted the interaction at post-test, receptive vocabulary did not.

According to the model proposed by Pons, Doudin, and Harris , children develop nine components of emotion comprehension between the ages of three to twelve. Studies reveal that children's comprehension of emotions can be stimulated by adults reading books designed for this purpose to preschool-aged children. The aim of this study is to explore whether dyadic reading is an effective strategy for stimulating emotion comprehension in school-aged children. Elementary school children (3rd, 4th and 5th grade) participated in the experimental or the control group. The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) was administered at pretest and post-test. Participants in the experimental group read the books on emotion comprehension for five sessions, while participants in the control group read classroom books. Results revealed that reading the emotion comprehension books increased the TEC post-test scores significantly from pretest for children in the experimental group, compared to the control group. For the Components Reminder, Belief and Morality scores at post-test were significantly increased from pretest for children in the experimental group, compared to the control group. Results suggest that dyadic book readings are successful in helping children with both complex components of their emotion comprehension and simpler ones. This intervention could be of use for teaching school-aged children emotion comprehension easily, effectively, and at low-cost.

According to the perceptual-attentional limitations hypothesis, the confusion between expressions of disgust and anger may be due to the difficulty in perceptually distinguishing the two, or insufficient attention to their distinctive cues. The objective of the current study was to test this hypothesis as an explanation for the confusion between expressions of disgust and anger in adults using eye-movements. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to identify each emotion in 96 trials composed of prototypes of anger and prototypes of disgust. In Experiment 2, fixation points oriented participants' attention toward the eyes, the nose, or the mouth of each prototype. Results revealed that disgust was less accurately recognised than anger (Experiment 1 and 2), especially when the mouth was open (Experiment 1 and 2), and even when attention was oriented toward the distinctive features of disgust (Experiment 2). Additionally, when attention was oriented toward certain zones, the eyes (which contain characteristics of anger) had the longest dwell times, followed by the nose (which contains characteristics of disgust; Experiment 2). Thus, although participants may attend to the distinguishing features of disgust and anger, these may not aid them in accurately recognising each prototype.