A developmental lexical bias in the interpretation of discrepant messages

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.