The development of cross-cultural recognition of vocal emotion during childhood and adolescence

Georgia Chronaki,Michael Wigelsworth,Sonja A Kotz,Marc D Pell

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26889-1

Abstract

Humans have an innate set of emotions recognised universally. However, emotion recognition also depends on socio-cultural rules. Although adults recognise vocal emotions universally, they identify emotions more accurately in their native language. We examined developmental trajectories of universal vocal emotion recognition in children. Eighty native English speakers completed a vocal emotion recognition task in their native language (English) and foreign languages (Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic) expressing anger, happiness, sadness, fear, and neutrality. Emotion recognition was compared across 8-to-10, 11-to-13-year-olds, and adults. Measures of behavioural and emotional problems were also taken. Results showed that although emotion recognition was above chance for all languages, native English speaking children were more accurate in recognising vocal emotions in their native language. There was a larger improvement in recognising vocal emotion from the native language during adolescence. Vocal anger recognition did not improve with age for the non-native languages. This is the first study to demonstrate universality of vocal emotion recognition in children whilst supporting an “in-group advantage” for more accurate recognition in the native language. Findings highlight the role of experience in emotion recognition, have implications for child development in modern multicultural societies and address important theoretical questions about the nature of emotions.

Highlights

Vocal cues provide a rich source of information about a speaker’s emotional state
A study comparing English and Hindi listeners, extended these findings by showing that emotion recognition in a non-native language is less accurate as well as less efficient; they reported an “in-group advantage” in both accuracy and speed of vocal emotion recognition in each of their cultural groups, despite the fact that Hindi participants were second language speakers of English[12]. These data argue that the ability to recognise vocally expressed emotions is a universal ability but it is dependent on cultural and linguistic influences, supporting the theory that both nature and nurture may contribute to vocal emotion recognition
Contrasts showed that English participants performed significantly better when recognising vocal emotions in their native language (English) than in each of the three foreign languages (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.74, 1.85 and 1.98 for English compared to Chinese, Spanish and Arabic respectively)

Summary

Introduction

Vocal cues provide a rich source of information about a speaker’s emotional state. The term ‘prosody’ derives from the Greek word ‘prosodia’ and refers to the changes in pitch, loudness, rhythm, and voice quality corresponding to a person’s emotional state[1,2]. A study comparing English and Hindi listeners, extended these findings by showing that emotion recognition in a non-native language is less accurate as well as less efficient; they reported an “in-group advantage” in both accuracy and speed of vocal emotion recognition in each of their cultural groups, despite the fact that Hindi participants were second language speakers of English[12] (see [13]) These data argue that the ability to recognise vocally expressed emotions is a universal ability but it is dependent on cultural and linguistic influences, supporting the theory that both nature and nurture may contribute to vocal emotion recognition. Sensitivity to vocal emotion has been associated with individual differences in social competence[14] and behaviour problems[15] in children

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