Children's average vocal emotion recognition performance is significantly below the adult group's average¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2023: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? The children-adolescents sample averaged 81.7% correct versus 86.7% for adults, a statistically significant difference. → Grosbras 2018

Evidence¶

Grosbras 2018¶

Grosbras, M.-H., Ross, P. D. & Belin, P. (2018). Categorical emotion recognition from voice improves during childhood and adolescence. Scientific Reports 8, 14791. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32868-3

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Welch t-test comparing mean percent-correct in the 225 children-adolescents (mean 81.7%, median 85%, SD 11.8%) against the 30 adults (mean 86.7%, median 87.5%, SD 9.3%). No standardized effect size is printed, so impact is null.

"The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (Welsh t(253 = 2.67, CI of difference = [1.33 8.67], p = 0.011)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Adult-level vocal emotion recognition performance is reached between 14 and 15 years of age, with a non-linear trajectory of faster childhood improvement followed by a late-adolescent plateau — related
• The ability to identify basic emotions from non-linguistic vocal bursts improves significantly with age from 5 to 17 years — a broader claim this one bears on
• Female children and adolescents recognize vocal emotions more accurately than males, with no interaction between sex and age — related
• Testing procedure (individual computer with headphones vs small-group loudspeaker with paper response) does not affect vocal emotion recognition performance or the developmental trajectory — related
• Happiness is the easiest vocal emotion to recognize and anger the hardest, with anger and fear showing the greatest age-related improvement — related