Children's interpretations of lexical and vocal cues to speaker affect, ind
ependently and in combination, were examined in four studies. In Experiment
s 1 and 2, 7- to 11-year-olds' judgments of lexical and paralinguistic cues
were evaluated. In Experiment 3, these cues were combined to produce consi
stent and discrepant messages. The affective interpretations of 7- to 10-ye
ar-olds reflected a weighted-averaging strategy favoring the affect conveye
d lexically. In Experiment 4, the developmental trajectory of children's in
terpretations of discrepancy from 4 to 10 years of age was investigated. Bo
th 4- and 7-year-olds appeared to use a weighted-averaging strategy favorin
g lexical content, whereas 10-year-olds utilized a strategy favoring parala
nguage.