Three studies examined preschoolers' performance on free labeling of prototypical facial expressions of basic emotions. Findings indicated that children's errors remained even when method factors (poor stimuli, unavailability of an appropriate label, or production task difficulty) were controlled. Use of emotion labels increased with age systematically: "Happy,""angry," and "sad" emerged early, were more accessible, and overgeneralized. "Scared,""surprised," and "disgusted" emerged later, were less accessible, and applied narrowly. (Author/KB)