Abstract                                                   
The present study aimed to comprehensively examine social cognition processes in children with and 
without learning disabilities (LD), focusing on social information processing (SIP) and complex 
emotional understanding capabilities such as understanding complex, mixed, and hidden emotions. 
Participants were 50 children with LD (age range 9.4-12.7; 35 boys, 15 girls) and 50 children 
without LD matched on grade, age, and gender. Children analyzed 4 social vignettes using Dodge's 
SIP model and completed 2 emotional recogni­ tion tasks (pictures and stories) and 4 emotional 
knowledge tasks, such as providing definitions and examples for 5 emotions (e.g., lone­ liness, 
pride, embarrassment). Study results demonstrated that children with LD had major difficulties in 
SIP processes and consistent difficulties with the different tasks in the understanding of complex 
emotions and in higher emotional understanding capabilities, such as understanding that 2 
conflicting emotions (love and hate) can be simultaneously experienced. We discuss the implications 
of such dif­ficulties for the understanding of social competence in children with LD as well as 
their implications for social skills intervention.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38, 45-61.