From age 8 we spontaneously link vocal to facial emotion

Average durations of all eye fixations in milliseconds for all 80 participants looking at natural faces expressing anger or happiness visualised in the form of a coloured card, after listening to a voice expressing happiness. (UNIGE) - Scientists have tracked the eye movements of children to show how they make the link - spontaneously and without instructions - between vocal emotion - (happiness or anger) followed by a natural or virtual face. Do children have to wait until age 8 to recognise - spontaneously and without instructions - the same emotion of happiness or anger depending on whether it is expressed by a voice or on a face? A team of scientists from the University of Geneva and the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences (CISA) has provided an initial response to this question. They compared the ability of children age 5, 8 and 10 years and adults to make a spontaneous link between a heard voice (expressing happiness or anger) and the corresponding emotional expression on a natural or virtual face (also expressing happiness or anger). The results, published in the journal Emotion , demonstrate that children from 8 years look at a happy face for longer if they have previously heard a happy voice. These visual preferences for congruent emotion reflect a child's ability for the spontaneous amodal coding of emotions, i.e. independent of perceptual modality (auditory or visual). Emotions are an integral part of our lives and influence our behaviour, perceptions and day-to-day decisions. The spontaneous amodal coding of emotions - i.e. independently of perceptual modalities and, therefore, the physical characteristics of faces or voices - is easy for adults, but how does the same capacity develop in children?