The cross-modal transfer of emotional information from voices to faces in 5-, 8- and 10-year-old children and adults: An eye-tracking study.

Abstract

The present study examined the evolution of emotional cross-modal transfer throughout childhood compared to adulthood, using an experimental design first used with infants. We studied whether verbal children spontaneously look at emotional faces differently depending on the emotional voices previously heard, demonstrating a real intrinsic understanding of the emotion. Thus, sequences of emotional (happy vs. angry) cross-modal transfer were individually presented to 5-, 8- and 10-year-old children and adults. Spontaneous ocular behaviors toward the visual stimuli were recorded by eye-tracking. Results of the emotional cross-modal transfer suggested that participants looked spontaneously longer at the congruent face. However, this result was significantly revealed only as of age 8 with the happy voice and as of age 10 with the angry voice. Thus, the modulation of behavior indicators related to the control of the ability to extract amodal emotional information and spontaneously match the congruent information seems to increase with age and depends on the specific emotion presented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).