Abstract
In an examination of age differences in relation to emotion recognition, this experiment explored the effect of touch on participants’ accuracy in correctly identifying angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, neutral, and sad emotional faces. The experimental group was stroked with a paintbrush on their forearm while viewing the emotional face pictures. For exploratory purposes, young adult (N=18) and older adult (N=28) participants also viewed sketches of touching dyads. They reported their frequency of and comfort with observing, receiving, and performing the portrayed touch gestures. This study replicated previous findings that state older adults less accurately identify angry, fearful, and neutral faces. Touch was not found to be significant by itself but a non-significant trend between touch, age group, and gender provides some avenues for further investigation. The results of this experiment, when taken in the context of the current literature, fits within the neuropsychological model for understanding age differences in emotion recognition. Recommendations for future research focus on methodological improvements.