How do children learn to categorize the facial configurations classically believed to represent basic emotions? Many stud-ies have examined when children are able to perceptually discriminate between emotional facial expressions and whenchildren are able to verbally label these expressions. However, while these studies provide important information aboutthe timeline of emotional development, they give less information about the nature of childrens category representationsfor different facial configurations. For instance, emotion concepts may emerge from childrens perceptions of facial con-figurations along the dimensions of valence and arousal. To evaluate how 3- to 7-year-old children categorize emotionconcepts, we had them sort facial configurations on a grid based on whether the people were feeling the same kind ofthing. We found that while both children and adults consistently sorted faces according to the dimensions of valence andarousal, sorting faces using discrete emotion categories emerged only gradually across development, with children notdemonstrating consistent use of emotion categories until approximately 5- to 6- years of age.

Perceivers view facial configurations as belonging to emotion categories, though the features of facial cues to emotionvary continuously. Little is understood about what factors beyond facial musculature influence these categorizations. Weinvestigated how an emoters gender influences how emotional cues are perceived. Eighty-four adults categorized morphedemotional faces of male and female models sampled from a neutral-angry continuum. Participants had a lower thresholdfor categorizing female faces as upset (X2=16.618, p¡.001), particularly for configurations that were closer to the angryend of the continuum. Even when provided explicit feedback on their responses, participants continued to be more likelyto identify a face as angry for female, as compared to male, models (X2=11.561, p¡.001). Therefore, judgments of emotionwere influenced by both the emotional cues displayed by a model and also the models identity. These results highlighthow the social context influences how individuals readand therefore respond toanger.