年齡對負向臉孔情緒辨識表現之效果－以情境線索與情緒類別為調節變項

臉孔情緒辨識是社交互動中無法或缺的能力，個體需要能夠正確知覺與處理有關他人心理狀態的社會資訊才能進行好的行為反應。根據研究，許多情境線索都會提升或干擾臉孔情緒辨識的判斷準確度。而過去研究也發現一般成人對負向臉孔情緒的辨識正確率較差，且隨年齡老化有逐漸下降趨勢，然而本土文化中卻少有研究探討情境線索對臉孔情緒辨識的影響。因此本研究意圖探討，本土文化中：年齡老化是否對所有負向情緒類別的臉孔辨識表現都產生影響？情境線索是否能夠改善受老化影響而變差之負向臉孔情緒辨識表現？是否所有負向情緒類別都能夠從情境線索獲益？　　由於情緒辨識可能受跨文化因素影響，且本土文化中未有可用之研究工具，因此本研究以先導研究編製華人臉孔情緒與情緒情境合成圖，以網路問卷（N=371）篩選出於本土文化中最能指涉悲傷、生氣、厭惡與害怕此四種負向情緒意涵的情境圖片共計8張情境圖片，男女各半。並將之與華人臉孔情緒資料庫內之負向臉孔情緒合成，最後獲得24張（四種情緒各6張）合成圖片。　　正式研究為2（年齡組別：青壯年組、老年組） × 2（情境線索：無情境線索之負向臉孔情緒辨識作業、情境線索辨識作業）× 4（負向情緒類別：悲傷、生氣、厭惡、害怕）的三因子混合設計。共收納109位一般成人（20至74歲），分為20歲之59歲之青壯年組（78人），與60歲以上之老年組（31人）。正式研究分別於第一及第二階段先後隨機呈現24張單純負向臉孔情緒及24張情境與負向臉孔情緒之合成圖片，並請受試者進行情緒類別辨識。研究結果發現：本土文化中，（1）所有負向情緒類別之辨識表現，老年組皆較青壯年組差；（2）兩年齡組別之受試者皆能從情境線索中獲益，且情境線索能夠改善老年組的低臉孔情緒辨識正確率，使老年人之辨識表現與青壯年相當；（3）在有情境線索輔助下，受試者對四種負向情緒類別的辨識正確率皆明顯較沒有情境線索時高，並大幅縮小不同類別間的辨識正確率差異，其中尤以害怕情緒的辨識正確率增幅最多。本研究藉先導研究所製之情境圖片工具，往後或可提供其他相關研究使用。而未來在較高齡的心理治療中，若發現個案有臉孔情緒辨識表現或社交互動反應變差之現象，治療師或許能夠與個案、家屬共同學習如何以其他線索來輔助（提升）個案的情緒辨識表現，進而改善其社交互動功能。

Emotional face recognition is an indispensable ability in social interaction. Individuals need to be able to correctly perceive and process social information related to the mental state of others to perform appropriate behavioral responses. It has been demonstrated that contextual cues could improve or interfere with the accuracy of facial emotion recognition. Moreover, several studies have suggested that the recognition of negative emotion faces in healthy adults is worse than positive or neutral ones, and it gradually declines with age. However, in Taiwan, the literature on this subject is scarce. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to examine: (1) Does aging affect the face recognition of all negative emotion categories? (2) Can contextual cues improve the influence of aging on the recognition of negative facial emotions? (3) Can all negative emotion categories benefit from contextual cues?Because of the impact of cross-cultural effects on face recognition and the lack of test tools, we first developed a facial emotion recognition test that is applicable to local culture in the pilot study. Through an online survey (N = 371), a total of 8 context-related pictures that can most refer to the four negative emotions of sadness, anger, disgust, and fear were selected. Those pictures were then synthesized with the facial images representing expressions of negative emotions chosen from the「Taiwan Corpora of Chinese Emotions and Relevant Psychophysiological Database」. A total of 24 face-context pictures were finally compiled.The formal study is a three-factor mixed design experiment, which is 2 (age group: young adults group, old age group) × 2 (situation clues: negative facial emotion identification task of ruthless situation clue, situational cue identification task) × 4 (negative emotion categories: sadness, anger, disgust, fear). A total of 109 adults (20-74 years old) were enrolled in this study. They were divided into two groups: young adults aged 20-59 years old (N =78) and elderly people over 60 years old (N = 31). Twenty-four facial images representing expressions of negative emotions and 24 face-context pictures were randomly presented in the first and second stages respectively, and the subjects were asked to recognize the emotional categories.The results of current study showed that: (1) the recognition performance of all negative emotion categories deteriorates with age; (2) all age groups could benefit from contextual cues, that is, contextual cues could improve the negative impact of aging on the recognition accuracy and the recognition performance of the elderly was equivalent to that of young adults; (3) with the aid of contextual cues, in all participants, the recognition accuracy of the four negative emotion categories were significantly higher than that of the absence of contextual clues, and greatly reduces the difference in recognition accuracy between different categories, especially the recognition of fear emotions. The face-context pictures representing expressions of negative emotions that developed in this study may be applicable for other related research in the future. Furthermore, if the case is found to have impaired facial emotion recognition or poor social interaction, especially in the psychotherapy of older individual, the therapist may be able to work with the case and his/her family members to learn how to use contextual cues to assist (enhance) his/her emotional recognition performance, thereby improving his/her social interaction function.