Categorization of visual and visual-verbal dynamic positive and negative expressions: a cross-sectional lifespan study

Findings on positivity and negativity biases in emotion perception have been challenged due to the frequent use of static, unimodal stimuli featuring young adult faces, which overlook the dynamic and diverse nature of emotional expressions. We addressed these limitations by using a stimulus database that incorporates naturalistic features of emotional expressions (dynamic, uni- and bimodal, age-varied faces). Accuracy and response times of 75 participants across three age groups (children, younger and older adults) were measured in a positive-negative emotion categorization task. Children showed a positivity bias and a reduced efficiency when integrating negative bimodal information. There were no clear biases in younger adults, while older adults benefitted from bimodal cues only when categorizing negative but not positive emotions. Overall, our findings suggest a more nuanced pattern of biases across lifespan than previously reported, potentially influenced by redundancy effects, cognitive load, and age-dependent motivational goals.