Development of Social & Emotional Communication - DSEC Lab

Shira Klein (She/Her) - QU’27 in Psychology. Shira is a volunteer research assistant and a SWEP summer research fellow in the DSEC Lab, where she is excited to be exploring the development of nonverbal communication and how it shapes our social interactions. Her academic journey has sparked a strong interest in rehabilitation sciences, and she hopes to pursue a future career as a Speech-Language Pathologist or Occupational Therapist, supporting individuals in building and regaining meaningful communication skills.

When she’s not in the lab, Shira loves to bake sweets! 🍪

Do adolescents recognize emotions better in people their own age? 🧐

An own-age bias refers to the tendency to recognize faces from your own age group more easily than faces from other age groups. Since this bias has been shown in both children and adults, researchers wanted to figure out whether it also appears during adolescence.

Vetter and colleagues (2018) tested whether adolescents were better at recognizing emotions in faces of other adolescents compared to adults, and whether emotion recognition changed across different stages of puberty.

Swipe through to learn more about what they found 👀

Interested in learning more? You can find the full paper here 📑:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00956/full

Thank you to our incoming graduate student Katrina Mascherin for putting together this fantastic post!

We spend a lot of time talking about communication. Listening is a key component of good communication! 👂️

Active listening is about paying attention, showing you’re engaged, and helping the other person feel heard. Research has found that people who experience active listening feel more understood and more satisfied with their conversations. 😀

To learn more, check out this article by Weger and colleagues:
Weger, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E.M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). The Relative Effectiveness of Active Listening in Initial Interactions. International Journal of Listening 28(1), 13-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2013.813234.

Thank you to research assistants Olivia Murray and Reyna Okumura for putting together this fantastic post!

Juliana Ricciuti (She/Her) - QU’27 in Psychology. Juliana is a third-year psychology student joining the DSEC Lab as a volunteer research assistant. She is particularly interested in the biological mechanisms underlying the development of emotional communication and how emotional communication affects our quality of life.

Fun fact: This summer Juliana hiked the Grouse Grind (a 2.5-km ascent with an elevation gain of 800m) in 51 minutes! 🏔️

Olivia Murray (she/her) - QU '27 in Psychology and Sociology. Olivia is a third-year psychology student and a volunteer research assistant in the DSEC Lab. She takes an interest in young adult clinical and social psychology, and forensic psychology. She is currently working towards pursuing higher education in clinical psychology.

Fun fact: Olivia has two cats, named Phoebe and Fozzie, and a puppy named Robin at home! 😺🐶

Have you heard the saying “fake it till you make it”? 💅

People often believe that smiling might make you feel happier! 😀 This notion comes from early psychological theories of emotion. Based on these ideas, the “facial feedback hypothesis” suggests that our emotions can be influenced by our facial expressions!

Coles and colleagues (2019) conducted a meta-analysis of the facial feedback literature to explore whether there was evidence in support of this hypothesis. Check out what they found by swiping through these slides!

Interested in learning more? You can find the full paper here 📑:
https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000194

Thank you to research assistant Tessa Patton for putting together this fantastic post!

Does this track with your experiences? Have you noticed an effect of your facial expressions on your emotions? Let us know in the comments! 👇️