THE COGNITIVE STYLES AND THE EFFICIENCY OF DISCRIMINATION OF FACIAL EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTIONS AT THE PERIOD OF ADOLESCENCE

The purpose of the research was to explore the connection between analytical vs global cognitive styles and the efficiency of discriminations of facial expressions of emotions at the period of adolescence. The FOTOS experiment was used as an emotional version of Posner's tasks which consists in the comparison of pairs of photos presented: right/left visual field; 500/2000 ms; sequentially/simultaneously, according to the name criterion. Witkin's EFT diagnosed the cognitive styles. In the group with global style, the girls more accurately distinguished various facial expressions of emotions (500 ms). In the group with analytical style, the girls discriminated facial expressions more accurately in the long condition (2000 ms). At the period of adolescence, the task conditions modify the efficiency of discriminations of facial expressions of emotions. It occurred that participants more accurately distinguished various facial expressions of emotions using the criterion of sequentially rather that simultaneously. The results indicated the predominance of the right hemisphere in facial emotions' discrimination