Abstract
The purpose of this experiment is to examine the age differences in encoding and decoding ability and the encoding-decoding relationship. Ten fourth-grade children and 10 undergraduates served as both encoders and decoders of facial expressions depicting six different emotions. Main findings were as follows: (a) children's encoding scores (rated by both children and adults) were not correlated with decoding scores for children's or adults' facial expressions; (b) as well, adults' encoding scores were not correlated with their decoding scores; (c) adults encode and decode more accurately than children; (d) children's decoding scores were higher than their encoding scores, but there was no difference in adults' encoding scores and decoding scores. Developmental changes in the encoding-decoding relationship were discussed.
