To determine whether gender differences exist in paralinguistic perception, 31 male and 59 female college students listened to an audiotape on which emotions were conveyed through ambiguous verbal statements and then indicated their perceptions of the conveyed emotions. Statistical analyses of the student responses in relation to students' individual characteristics showed that (1) women's perception scores were significantly higher (more accurate) than men's scores; (2) students majoring in speech had higher scores than nonmajors, but the difference was not statistically significant; (3) women majoring in speech had higher scores than men majoring in speech, but the difference was not statistically significant; (4) women majoring in speech had significantly higher scores than women who were nonmajors; (5) female nonmajors had significantly higher scores than male nonmajors; (6) scores of the men majoring in speech were higher than those of men not majoring in speech, but the difference was not statistically significant; and (7) men majoring in speech had higher scores than female nonmajors, but the difference was not statistically significant. Previous coursework in oral interpretation, previous experience in oral interpretation activities, grade level, and age level were not factors differentiating students' scores on the intonation test. Overall, the study indicated that men entering collegiate-level oral interpretation classes may need increased initial instruction in intonation discrimination. (RL)