Exploring the determinants of the graded structure of vocal emotion expressions

Abstract

We examined what determines the typicality, or graded structure, of vocal emotion expressions. Separate groups of judges rated acted and spontaneous expressions of anger, fear, and joy with regard to their typicality and three main determinants of the graded structure of categories: category members' similarity to the central tendency of their category (CT); category members' frequency of instantiation, i.e., how often they are encountered as category members (FI); and category members' similarity to ideals associated with the goals served by its category, i.e., suitability to express particular emotions. Partial correlations and multiple regression analysis revealed that similarity to ideals, rather than CT or FI, explained most variance in judged typicality. Results thus suggest that vocal emotion expressions constitute ideal-based goal-derived categories, rather than taxonomic categories based on CT and FI. This could explain how prototypical expressions can be acoustically distinct and highly recognisable but occur relatively rarely in everyday speech.

Encoding Conditions Affect Recognition of Vocally Expressed Emotions Across Cultures

“…For the other three categories, acting does not necessarily appear to be connected with a more exaggerated expression, which is contrary to previous results (Barkhuysen et al, 2007; Laukka et al, 2012). According to our results, play-acted expressions do not represent a socially learned code (Matsumoto et al, 2009).…”

“…Though actors spend many years perfecting the authenticity and clarity of their portrayals of human behavior and emotions (Goldstein and Bloom, 2011), acted emotional expressions may still be more stereotyped and more intense than spontaneous expressions (Wilting et al, 2006; Laukka et al, 2012, but, see Jürgens et al, 2011; Scherer, 2013), and are thought to be more strongly bound by social codes (Hunt, 1941; Matsumoto et al, 2009). In addition, preselected, stereotypical expressions might conceal possible effects of response biases in cross-culture studies due to their clear and unmistakable expression patterns (Wagner, 1993; Elfenbein et al, 2002).…”

Cross-cultural decoding of positive and negative non-linguistic emotion vocalizations

“…The use of a forced-choice format has also been criticized on the grounds that it may lead to inflated recognition rates by enabling judges to use informed guessing strategies to a certain extent (e.g., Russell, 1994). Finally, we used portrayed rather than spontaneous vocalizations, whereas some previous studies have reported that acted expressions may be more prototypical and intense than spontaneous expressions (e.g., Laukka et al, 2012). We are addressing the question of a possible in-group advantage in ongoing cross-cultural judgment studies, and would welcome future studies that consider effects of the format of the judgment task and type of expressive stimuli on cross-cultural emotion decoding (e.g., Jürgens et al, 2013).…”

Can perceivers recognise emotions from spontaneous expressions?

“…In an examination of prototypicality, Laukka and colleagues tested the perception of segments of speech inflected with anger, fear, or joy (Laukka, Audibert, & Aubergé, 2012). Their results lend some support to the notion that expressions that are more prototypical are better recognised, but whether this relationship applies to nonverbal vocalisations is not yet clear.…”