title: Recognition accuracy and reaction time of vocal expressions of emotion by African-American and Euro-American college women.
abstract: This study examined the relationship of racial group membership and vocal expressions of emotion. Recognition accuracy and reaction time were examined using the Diagnostic Assessment of Nonverbal Accuracy 2 Receptive Paralanguage subtests with 18 young Euro-American and African-American women. Participants listened to Euro-American children and adults speaking a neutral sentence, and identified the emotion as happy, sad, angry, or fearful. Analysis identified a significant effect for race on reaction time. Euro-American participants had faster mean RT than the African-American women for the recognition of vocal expression of emotion portrayed by Euro-Americans. However, no significant differences were found in mean accurate identification between the two groups. The finding of a significant difference in recognition RT but not in accuracy between the stimuli spoken by an adult and a child was unexpected. Both racial groups had faster mean RT in response to vocal expression of emotion by children.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, USA. weathersm@mail.ecu.edu
authors.forename: Monica D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Weathers
authors.forename: Panagiota
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kitsantas
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lever
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.forename: Stacy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rastatter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001741:Black or African American; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014831:Voice; D044465:White People