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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception
Published on: August 9, 2024
Age-related differences in recall for words using semantics and prosody
Jonathan D Sober1, Lisa A VanWormer1, James E Arruda1
1a University of West Florida.
Abstract:
The positivity effect is a developmental shift seen in older adults to be increasingly influenced by positive information in areas such as memory, attention, and decision-making. This study is the first to examine the age-related differences of the positivity effect for emotional prosody. Participants heard a factorial combination of words that were semantically positive or negative said with either positive or negative intonation. Results showed a semantic positivity effect for older adults, and a prosody positivity effect for younger adults. Additionally, older adults showed a significant decrease in recall for semantically negative words said in an incongruent prosodically positive tone.
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