Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence
Abstract Emotional prosody results from the dynamic variation of language’s acoustic non-verbal aspects that allow people to convey and recognize emotions. The goal of this paper is to understand how this recognition develops from childhood to adolescence. We also aim to investigate how the ability...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21554-0 |
| _version_ | 1798030073777881088 |
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| author | M. Filippa D. Lima A. Grandjean C. Labbé S. Y. Coll E. Gentaz D. M. Grandjean |
| author_facet | M. Filippa D. Lima A. Grandjean C. Labbé S. Y. Coll E. Gentaz D. M. Grandjean |
| author_sort | M. Filippa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Emotional prosody results from the dynamic variation of language’s acoustic non-verbal aspects that allow people to convey and recognize emotions. The goal of this paper is to understand how this recognition develops from childhood to adolescence. We also aim to investigate how the ability to perceive multiple emotions in the voice matures over time. We tested 133 children and adolescents, aged between 6 and 17 years old, exposed to 4 kinds of linguistically meaningless emotional (anger, fear, happiness, and sadness) and neutral stimuli. Participants were asked to judge the type and intensity of perceived emotion on continuous scales, without a forced choice task. As predicted, a general linear mixed model analysis revealed a significant interaction effect between age and emotion. The ability to recognize emotions significantly increased with age for both emotional and neutral vocalizations. Girls recognized anger better than boys, who instead confused fear with neutral prosody more than girls. Across all ages, only marginally significant differences were found between anger, happiness, and neutral compared to sadness, which was more difficult to recognize. Finally, as age increased, participants were significantly more likely to attribute multiple emotions to emotional prosody, showing that the representation of emotional content becomes increasingly complex. The ability to identify basic emotions in prosody from linguistically meaningless stimuli develops from childhood to adolescence. Interestingly, this maturation was not only evidenced in the accuracy of emotion detection, but also in a complexification of emotion attribution in prosody. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:34:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ac21cd885acc4ad4af6bf47951111d46 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:34:25Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-ac21cd885acc4ad4af6bf47951111d462022-12-22T04:06:54ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-10-011211810.1038/s41598-022-21554-0Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescenceM. Filippa0D. Lima1A. Grandjean2C. Labbé3S. Y. Coll4E. Gentaz5D. M. Grandjean6Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, University of GenevaFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, University of GenevaEducational Medical Center of Boissonas, Office Médico-PédagogiqueFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, University of GenevaEducational Medical Center of Boissonas, Office Médico-PédagogiqueFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, University of GenevaFaculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, University of GenevaAbstract Emotional prosody results from the dynamic variation of language’s acoustic non-verbal aspects that allow people to convey and recognize emotions. The goal of this paper is to understand how this recognition develops from childhood to adolescence. We also aim to investigate how the ability to perceive multiple emotions in the voice matures over time. We tested 133 children and adolescents, aged between 6 and 17 years old, exposed to 4 kinds of linguistically meaningless emotional (anger, fear, happiness, and sadness) and neutral stimuli. Participants were asked to judge the type and intensity of perceived emotion on continuous scales, without a forced choice task. As predicted, a general linear mixed model analysis revealed a significant interaction effect between age and emotion. The ability to recognize emotions significantly increased with age for both emotional and neutral vocalizations. Girls recognized anger better than boys, who instead confused fear with neutral prosody more than girls. Across all ages, only marginally significant differences were found between anger, happiness, and neutral compared to sadness, which was more difficult to recognize. Finally, as age increased, participants were significantly more likely to attribute multiple emotions to emotional prosody, showing that the representation of emotional content becomes increasingly complex. The ability to identify basic emotions in prosody from linguistically meaningless stimuli develops from childhood to adolescence. Interestingly, this maturation was not only evidenced in the accuracy of emotion detection, but also in a complexification of emotion attribution in prosody.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21554-0 |
| spellingShingle | M. Filippa D. Lima A. Grandjean C. Labbé S. Y. Coll E. Gentaz D. M. Grandjean Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence Scientific Reports |
| title | Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence |
| title_full | Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence |
| title_fullStr | Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence |
| title_short | Emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence |
| title_sort | emotional prosody recognition enhances and progressively complexifies from childhood to adolescence |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21554-0 |
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