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Take your word or tone for it? European American and Chinese children's attention to emotional cues in speech.
Citation
Yang, Y., Wang, L., & Wang, Q. (2021). Take your word or tone for it? European American and Chinese children's attention to emotional cues in speech. Child Development, 92(3), 844-852. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13576
Abstract
Cultural experiences can influence how people attend to different emotional cues. Whereas semantic content explicitly describes feelings, vocal tone conveys implicit information regarding emotions. This cross-cultural study examined children’s attention to emotional cues in spoken words. The sample consisted of 121 European American (EA) and 120 Chinese children (4–9 years old). Each child played two computer games in which they listened to spoken words and judged the pleasantness of either the word meaning (Word game) or the vocal tone (Tone game) while ignoring the other aspect. Chinese children paid more spontaneous attention to vocal tones and less to word meanings than did EA children. These findings shed critical light on the role of culture in shaping affective cognitive processes during development.
Date Issued
2021
DOI
10.1111/cdev.13576
Description
This is the final draft, after peer-review, of a manuscript published in Child development. The published version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13576.