Berman, Jared M. J.Graham, SusanChambers, Craig G.2020-04-212020-04-212012-09Berman, J. M. J., Graham, S. A., & Chambers, C. G. (2012). Contextual influences on children's use of vocal affect cues during referential interpretation. "The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology", 66:4, 705-726, DOI:10.1080/17470218.2012.713367http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111826https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/43633In three experiments, we investigated 5-year-olds' sensitivity to speaker vocal affect during referential interpretation in cases where the indeterminacy is or is not resolved by speech information. In Experiment 1, analyses of eye gaze patterns and pointing behaviours indicated that 5-year-olds used vocal affect cues at the point where an ambiguous description was encountered. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used unambiguous situations to investigate how the referential context influences the ability to use affect cues earlier in the utterance. Here, we found a differential use of speaker vocal affect whereby 5-year-olds' referential hypotheses were influenced by negative vocal affect cues in advance of the noun, but not by positive affect cues. Together, our findings reveal how 5-year-olds use a speaker's vocal affect to identify potential referents in different contextual situations and also suggest that children may be more attuned to negative vocal affect than positive vocal affect, particularly early in an utterance.engUnless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. 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.journal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2012.713367