Acoustic profiles in vocal emotion expression (original) (raw)

1996, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Professional actors' portrayals of 14 emotions varying in intensity and valence were presented to judges. The results on decoding replicate earlier findings on the ability of judges to infer vocally expressed emotions with much-better-than-chance accuracy, including consistently found differences in the recognizability of different emotions. A total of 224 portrayals were subjected to digital acoustic analysis to obtain profiles of vocal parameters for different emotions. The data suggest that vocal parameters not only index the degree of intensity typical for different emotions but also differentiate valence or quality aspects. The data are also used to test theoretical predictions on vocal patterning based on the component process model of emotion (K. R. Scherer, 1986). Although most hypotheses are supported, some need to be revised on the basis of the empirical evidence. Discriminant analysis and jackknifing show remarkably high hit rates and patterns ofc0nfusion that closely mirror those found for listener-judges. The important role of vocal cues in the expression of emotion, both felt and feigned, and the powerful effects of vocal affect expression on interpersonal interaction and social influence have been recognized ever since antiquity (see Cicero's De Oratore or Quintilian's Institutio Oratoria; cf. Scherer, 1993). Darwin (1872/1965), in his pioneering monograph on the expression of emotion in animals and humans, underlined the primary significance of the voice as a carrier of affective signals. More recently, ethologists and psychologists have identified the various functions of vocal affect communication with respect to major dimensions of organismic states (e.g., activity or arousal, valence) and interorganismic relationships (e.g., dominance, nurturance), particularly for the communication of reaction patterns and behavioral intentions (see Cosmides,