Tamis-LeMonda-05-14-2021-7

Understanding Emotions   257

From R. Hepach and G. Westermann. 2013. J Exp Child Psychol 115: 16–29

presented with their mothers’ faces (Kahana-Kalman &Walker-Andrews, 2001). Late in the first year, infants match positive emotions to positive events (Skerry & Spelke, 2014), and by the second year, infants match negative emotions to negative events (e.g., Reschke et al., 2017; Ruba, Meltzoff, & Repacholi, 2019). When researchers monitor infants’ eye movements with eye trackers, they find that infants attend to the mouth area in particular to figure out how emo- tions in faces relate to emotions in voices (Palama, Malsert, & Gentaz, 2018). As infants enter their second year, they consider a person’s actions when evaluat- ing emotions, such as understanding that a person whose face appears to be angry might hit a toy tiger and a person whose face appears to be happy might pet a toy tiger (Hepach & Westermann, 2013) ( FIGURE 7.10 ). CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.5 1. What evidence suggests that newborns and very young infants can distinguish among different types of emotional expressions and gradations of emotional expressions? Using Emotional Information LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.6  Describe evidence suggesting that infants attach meaning to the emotions they observe in other people. Distinguishing among emotions is only a first step in understanding emotions. Infants must also learn to use emotional information, which requires connecting people’s expressions to what people actually feel or intend to communicate. To illustrate, imagine the following situation: A toddler runs across the playground and stumbles over a toy, landing belly down on the ground. She briefly hesi- tates and looks up to her mother who is seated on a nearby bench. Her mother ✓ Tamis-L Monda Child Devel pment: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E S auer Associ tes/OUP Morales Studio TAMIS1e_07.10 06-30-21 FIGURE 7.10  Infants match emotions with actions.  Infants were shown clips of actors who displayed happiness or anger, and then either pet or hit a stuffed animal. Infant looking time suggested that they were able to infer that someone who shows a happy face will be more likely to pat a stuffed animal (top row) but unlikely to hit the animal (second row). Conversely, someone who shows an angry face will be more likely to hit an animal (third row) than to pat it (bottom row). PROPERTY OF OXFORD

UNIVERSITY PRESS