Preschoolers' Attention to Emotional Prosody as a Function of Speaker Conventionality

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dc.contributor.advisorGraham, Susan A.
dc.contributor.authorWieczorek, Karolina Marta
dc.contributor.committeememberCurtin, Suzanne
dc.contributor.committeememberNoel, Melanie
dc.contributor.committeememberSkordos, Dimitrios
dc.date2020-11
dc.date.accessioned2020-08-27T22:34:39Z
dc.date.available2020-08-27T22:34:39Z
dc.date.issued2020-08-24
dc.description.abstractEmotional prosody is a paralinguistic cue that can provide information about a speaker’s emotional state. The current study examined preschoolers’ pragmatic adaptation in the use of emotional prosody. Specifically, the aims were: 1) to examine 4- and 5-year-olds’ use of emotional prosody to resolve ambiguity as a function of speaker conventionality and 2) to assess whether individual differences in cognitive and social skills contribute to this ability. Using an eye-tracking paradigm, children were presented with a speaker who used emotional prosody in both a conventional and unconventional manner within the same interaction. Following the speaker’s demonstration of conventionality, children’s use of emotional prosody in resolving ambiguity was examined using eye-gaze (i.e., implicit) and pointing (i.e., explicit) measures. Children also completed executive functioning measures (i.e., the NIH Toolbox Early Childhood Cognition Battery) and parents completed a social skills questionnaire (i.e., the Social Skills Improvement System). The findings indicated that children’s implicit processing of emotional prosody was influenced by negative emotional prosody, while children’s explicit processing of emotional prosody was influenced by the speaker’s initial conventionality. Children were flexible in response to the speaker’s initial conventionality but did not adapt their inferences when the speaker changed. This work adds to the literature supporting the use of socio-cognitive learning mechanisms and aids in clarifying the pragmatic thresholds that 4- and 5-year-olds apply in their in-the-moment reasoning about a speaker’s communicative intent.en_US
dc.identifier.citationWieczorek, K. M. (2020). Preschoolers' Attention to Emotional Prosody as a Function of Speaker Conventionality (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/38123
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/112441
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectEmotional Prosodyen_US
dc.subjectSpeaker Conventionalityen_US
dc.subjectPragmatic Adaptationen_US
dc.subjectExecutive Functionsen_US
dc.subjectSocial Skillsen_US
dc.subjectEye-trackingen_US
dc.subject.classificationLinguisticsen_US
dc.subject.classificationPsychology--Clinicalen_US
dc.subject.classificationPsychology--Cognitiveen_US
dc.subject.classificationPsychology--Developmentalen_US
dc.titlePreschoolers' Attention to Emotional Prosody as a Function of Speaker Conventionalityen_US
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychology – Clinicalen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Science (MSc)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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