The present study had three aims: to examine the effects of displayed emotion and message length on speech-reading performance, and how measures of working memory (cf. Baddeley 1986) and verbal information processing speed relate to speech-reading performance. Words and sentences with either positive or negative meaning were used in a word decoding and a sentence-based speech-reading test. A total of 48 normal-hearing subjects participated. The results revealed general effects of displayed emotion, message meaning and message length and no effect of displayed emotion vs message length. Furthermore, working memory but not verbal information processing speed nor accuracy predicted speech-reading performance. The results were discussed with respect to a model of face-processing (Bruce & Young 1986) and with respect to clinical implications.