Age difference in recognition of emoticons

Abstract

Emoticons are new visual or nonverbal communication cues used in digital interaction. Can elders recognize and discriminate emotional states from emoticons as well as young people can? This study uses emoticons to investigate recognizable emotional differences between thirty older and thirty younger adults. A total of 32 representative emoticons were used as stimuli, consisting of 24 realistic facial expressions, 8 abstract facial expressions, 11 positive emotions, 11 neutral emotions, and 10 negative emotions. Four questions, including "emotional state," "imitative level," "preference," and "understanding" of emoticons, were applied in the questionnaire. The results showed older adults to have a more positive response toward perceived emoticons than younger adults. The two age ranges have different cognition of the design appearances of realistic and abstract emoticons. Older adults showed less preference toward all emoticons than younger adults. The result also denotes older adults can analogize between realistic faces and emoticons. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.