Experimental studies indicate that recognition of emotions, particularly negative emotions, decreases with age. However, there is no consensus at which age the decrease in emotion recognition begins, how selective this is to negative emotions, and whether this applies to both facial and vocal expression. In the current cross-sectional study, 607 participants ranging in age from 18 to 84 years (mean age = 32.6 +/- 14.9 years) were asked to recognize emotions expressed either facially or vocally. In general, older participants were found to be less accurate at recognizing emotions, with the most distinctive age difference pertaining to a certain group of negative emotions. Both modalities revealed an age-related decline in the recognition of sadness and -- to a lesser degree -- anger, starting at about 30 years of age. Although age-related differences in the recognition of expression of emotion were not mediated by personality traits, 2 of the Big 5 traits, openness and conscientiousness, made an independent contribution to emotion-recognition performance. Implications of age-related differences in facial and vocal emotion expression and early onset of the selective decrease in emotion recognition are discussed in terms of previous findings and relevant theoretical models.

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University students (N = 301) in Estonia, Morocco, and the United States read scenarios about various scheduled appointments and indicated the time at which a person arriving would be inappropriately early or inappropriately late. Participants also completed measures of time orientation, collectivism, and personality. Definitions of "on time" varied substantially across countries and across individuals but interacted in a regular fashion with specific features of appointments (e.g., the purpose of an appointment or the status of persons involved). Flexible definitions of "on time" were associated with youth, collectivist values, and a fatalistic orientation toward the present. Finally, definitions of "on time" were largely independent of personality traits. Taken as a whole, personal standards of punctuality appear to be best understood within a situational and sociocultural-rather than dispositional-framework.

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