Emotional representation in facial expression and script: A comparison between normal and autistic children

The paper explored conceptual and lexical skills with regard to emotional correlates of facial stimuli and scripts. In two different experimental phases normal and autistic children observed six facial expressions of emotions (happiness, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, and disgust) and six emotional scripts (contextualized facial expressions). In the second place, the effect of emotional domain (different emotions) in decoding was explored. A semantic grid was applied to conversational line, including two levels of data: the lexical adequacy index (correct decoding of emotion) and the emotional vocabulary (such as the causal representation and the hedonic valence of the stimulus). Log–linear analysis showed different representations across the subjects, as a function of emotion, task and pathology. Specifically, childrens’ lexical competence was well developed for some emotions (such as happiness, anger, and fear), and as a function of type of task, that is script was better represented than face. Between the main linguistic indexes, causal relation was a prototypical index for emotional conceptualization. Finally, pathology affected children's performance, with an increased “facilitation effect” for autistic children in the script condition.