Developing an Understanding of Emotion Categories: Lessons from Objects. Issue 1 (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoemann, Katie; Wu, Rachel; LoBue, Vanessa; Oakes, Lisa M.; Xu, Fei; Barrett, Lisa Feldman
• Is Part Of: Trends in cognitive sciences. Volume 24:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 39
• Page End: 51
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: object categorization -- emotional development -- emotion concepts -- abstract categories; Cognitive science -- Periodicals; Cognitive neuroscience -- Periodicals; 153.05
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.10.010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1364-6613

Abstract

Abstract : How and when infants and young children begin to develop emotion categories is not yet well understood. Research has largely treated the learning problem as one of identifying perceptual similarities among exemplars (typically posed, stereotyped facial configurations). However, recent meta-analyses and reviews converge to suggest that emotion categories are abstract, involving high-dimensional and situationally variable instances. In this paper we consult research on the development of abstract object categorization to guide hypotheses about how infants might learn abstract emotion categories because the two domains present infants with similar learning challenges. In particular, we consider how a developmental cascades framework offers opportunities to understand how and when young children develop emotion categories. Highlights: Emotion categories are ad hoc abstract categories with highly variable instances that are constructed to meet situation-specific functions. Emotional development research has largely focused on the perception of exaggerated, posed facial configurations that depict stereotyped emotional expressions, and has not yet proposed or tested hypotheses about the mechanisms for learning abstract emotion categories. Research on abstract object categorization provides insights into how infants form context-specific, abstract categories that vary in their physical, functional, and psychological features. A developmental cascades approach provides a framework for guiding hypotheses about the formation of abstract emotion categories in the context of other developing abilities. Specifically, a developmental cascades approach proposes that emotion categories are the result of a dynamic, multicausal learning process that is conditioned on the development of motor, linguistic, and mental inference abilities, among other core processes.