Cross-cultural differences in the perception of the emotional content of speech: A study of the development of sensitivity in Canadian and Mexican children.

Examined and compared the ability of Canadian and Mexican children to identify the emotional content of vocal expressions. Ss were 10 males from each country at each age 6-11 yrs. 10 male Canadian and 10 male Mexican undergraduates also served as Ss. Canadian and Mexican actresses, speaking any words they wished in their respective languages, simulated the emotions of happiness, sadness, love, and anger. After the initial recording, speech samples were arranged in random order and then rendered unintelligible by means of an electronic filtering device (which removed semantic content while leaving intact the tonal qualities of speech). When the filtered vocal expressions were played to Ss, a progressive increase with age in ability to identify correctly the emotions expressed was found. Further, the Mexican Ss overall were significantly more sensitive than the Canadian Ss. However, Ss from both countries judged the speech samples from Mexican actresses more accurately than those from Canadian actresses. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)