Describing the emotional states that are expressed in speech

Abstract

To study relations between speech and emotion, it is necessary to have methods of describing emotion. Finding appropriate methods is not straightforward, and there are difficulties associated with the most familiar. The word emotion itself is problematic: a narrow sense is often seen as ''correct'', but it excludes what may be key areas in relation to speech--including states where emotion is present but not full-blown, and related states (e.g., arousal, attitude). Everyday emotion words form a rich descriptive system, but it is intractable because it involves so many categories, and the relationships among them are undefined. Several alternative types of description are available. Emotion-related biological changes are well documented, although reductionist conceptions of them are problematic. Psychology offers descriptive systems based on dimensions such as evaluation (positive or negative) and level of activation, or on logical elements that can be used to define an appraisal of the situation. Adequate descriptive systems need to recognise the importance of both time course and interactions involving multiple emotions and/or deliberate control. From these conceptions of emotion come various tools and techniques for describing particular episodes. Different tools and techniques are appropriate for different purposes.

The vocal communication of different kinds of smile

“…Ekman's Non-Verbal Leakage Theory (Ekman et al, 1980) and the observations of Cowie and Cornelius (2003). In order to assess these possibilities, future research should include ratings of emotions from speakers, using a validated technique, and relate these ratings to the discrimination accuracy of the smile types by listeners.…”

Emotional speech: Towards a new generation of databases

“…The paper notes some of the ways that recent psychology impinges on databases: an extended discussion of the topic is provided by Cowie and Cornelius (2003).…”

“…Also, speech in daily life tends to express moderate emotional states rather than full-blown basic emotions. These issues are covered more fully by Cowie and Cornelius (2003).…”

“…Psychology offers a well-developed alternative in the form of dimensional approaches: for details, see (Cowie and Cornelius, 2003). It has been used in a few studies of speech, particularly the Belfast naturalistic study, which is presented more fully in Section 4.…”

“…Raters used a mouse to move a cursor inside the circle, adjusting its position continuously to reflect the impression of emotion that they derived from the clip. Cowie and Cornelius (2003) give more information about the system. The database is not representative in any strict sense, but it provides some guidance on the kinds of emotion that tend to occur in natural speech.…”