Vocal communication of emotion: A review of research paradigms

Abstract

The current state of research on emotion effects on voice and speech is reviewed and issues for future research efforts are discussed. In particular, it is suggested to use the Brunswikian lens model as a base for research on the vocal communication of emotion. This approach allows one to model the complete process, including both encoding (expression), transmission, and decoding (impression) of vocal emotion communication. Special emphasis is placed on the conceptualization and operationalization of the major elements of the model (i.e., the speakerÕs emotional state, the listenerÕs attribution, and the mediating acoustic cues). In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of research paradigms for the induction or observation of emotional expression in voice and speech and the experimental manipulation of vocal cues are discussed, using pertinent examples drawn from past and present research.

You ‘have’ to hear this: Using tone of voice to motivate others.

“…Together, this suggests that controlling sentences are produced with a less breathy or stern sounding voice quality. In fact, accounts on how internal states exemplify through acoustic parameters (e.g., Scherer, 2003) predict that powerful voices carry strong energy across the entire frequency range; the current data nicely fit with this hypothesis. Together, they suggest that controlling sentences are produced with a stern sounding voice, and indeed sternness, loudness, and slow speech were key features of sentences perceived in Study 2 to be controlling.…”

“…Specifically, in past research a 'breathy' voice corresponds to a higher concentration of energy in high-frequency regions (Guzman et al, 2013), while a 'narrow' voice is argued to contain more high frequency energy indicative of sternness (Scherer, 2003). Consequently, 'lax' voices have higher proportions of low-frequency energy (Banse & Scherer, 1996).…”

Emotional Pre-eminence of Human Vocalizations

“…A listing of the provenance of the stimuli can be found in the electronic supplementary material. All stimuli (16 bit stereo) were edited to be 2 s in 1 A pilot investigation suggested that 2 s duration is sufficient for eliciting each of the three emotional valences. We would further note that studies of the discrimination of sounds of environmental objects have dissociated electrophysiological indices of categorical discrimination from psychophysical indices [18].…”

“…While the visual modality has been studied in extensive detail, comparatively less is known concerning the auditory modality. To date, auditory research has largely focused on the emotional attributes of speech prosody and music [1][2][3][4][5][6], with only a few studies using either environmental sounds or non-linguistic vocalizations [7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…The present study had two objectives. The first objective was to generate an auditory stimulus battery that includes positively, negatively, and neutrally rated sounds of relatively short and equal duration 1 that are appropriate for use in psychophysical and brain imaging investigations (c.f. [11] for a recent discussion of this issue).…”