This work was supported by a grant from Shalem Fund
This study examined the ability to identify emotions in speech among adults with intellectual disability (ID). The study included two experiments that tested emotion identification in each of the speech channels (prosody and semantics) separately, as well as their integration. The findings indicate a direct link between the level of ID and task difficulty, to emotion processing performance. Results suggest that the difficulty in understanding emotions stems from general cognitive limitations that impede performing complex tasks, rather than a primary deficit in emotion processing among people with ID.
Key Words: Speech Perception, Emotion, Prosody, Semantics