Being able to recognize facial expressions of emotion is an important social skill. For the majority of people this skill is learnt incidentally in social situations. However for a small minority of people, such as the mentally retarded, this skill needs to be systematically taught. The present studies investigated the abilities of mentally retarded persons in recognizing six basic facial expressions of emotion (happiness, sadness, disgust, surprise, fear and anger.)

A series of four studies are reported. In study 1, the accuracy of 373 mentally retarded children and adults and 128 non-retarded children at recognizing the six basic facial expressions of emotion was investigated. Mentally retarded children and adults were not as accurate at recognizing facial expressions of emotion as non-retarded persons. Study 2 compared 20 mildly and 20 moderately retarded children and 20 mildly and 20 moderately retarded adults with non-retarded. mental age and sex controls. A two-way analysis of variance showed all four groups of retarded subjects were significantly less accurate (at the .001 level) in their recognition of facial expressions of emotion compared with their matched controls. Study 3 details the construction or a generalization probe portraying role plays of the six basic emotions. In study 4, seven mentally retarded adults were taught to recognize six basic facial expressions of emotion. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used incorporating a generalization probe. Mentally retarded adults were trained using overcorrection and education with regard to the muscular movements which relate to specific emotions. The training study demonstrated that young mentally retarded adults could be taught to improve in their ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. Response generalization was measured across photographs and video presentations.