Vocal Measurement of Emotion

Scherer, Klaus R.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-558704-4.50015-3

Cited by 67 publications

(71 citation statements)

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“…Instead, most acoustic changes measured in real or induced emotional speech can most parsimoniously be explained in terms of the general physiological arousal characteristic of different emotions. This contrasts with the theoretical view (e.g., Scherer, 1986) that emotions affect the acoustic characteristics of speech along multiple dimensions in a manner similar to the pattern of physiological changes that accompany emotion (e.g., Bradley, Codispoti, Cuthbert, & Lang, 2001;Cacioppo, Klein, Bernston, & Hatfield, 1993).The reasons for the paucity of research on real or elicited emotional speech have been described elsewhere (e.g., Johnstone, van Reekum, & Scherer, 2001;Scherer, Johnstone, & Klasmeyer, 2003). These include the practical difficulty of inducing emotions in the laboratory and the fact that whatever emotional information is carried in speech is often shrouded or masked by other aspects (e.g., linguistic, social, cultural) of the speech signal, as well as the relatively recent development of affordable and effective speech analysis software and hardware.…”

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confidence: 64%

“…The reasons for the paucity of research on real or elicited emotional speech have been described elsewhere (e.g., Johnstone, van Reekum, & Scherer, 2001;Scherer, Johnstone, & Klasmeyer, 2003). These include the practical difficulty of inducing emotions in the laboratory and the fact that whatever emotional information is carried in speech is often shrouded or masked by other aspects (e.g., linguistic, social, cultural) of the speech signal, as well as the relatively recent development of affordable and effective speech analysis software and hardware.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The effects of difficulty and gain versus loss on vocal physiology and acoustics

et al. 2007

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To examine the basis of emotional changes to the voice, physiological and electroglottal measures were combined with acoustic speech analysis of 30 men performing a computer task in which they lost or gained points under two levels of difficulty. Predictions of the main effects of difficulty and reward on the voice were not borne out by the data. Instead, vocal changes depended largely on interactions between gain versus loss and difficulty. The rate at which the vocal folds open and close (fundamental frequency; f 0 ) was higher for loss than for gain when difficulty was high, but not when difficulty was low. Electroglottal measures revealed that f 0 changes corresponded to shorter glottal open times for the loss conditions. Longer closed and shorter open phases were consistent with raised laryngeal tension in difficult loss conditions. Similarly, skin conductance indicated higher sympathetic arousal in loss than gain conditions, particularly when difficulty was high. The results provide evidence of the physiological basis of affective vocal responses, confirming the utility of measuring physiology and voice in the study of emotion.Descriptors: Emotional prosody, Voice, Electroglottography, Physiology, Difficulty, ValenceThe acoustic characteristics of natural, often involuntary markers of emotion in the voice and the physiological mechanisms responsible for such vocal modulation have as yet received little attention from researchers. In contrast to studies of acted emotional speech, the small number of studies on natural or induced emotional speech (e.g., Alpert, Kurtzberg, & Friedhoff, 1963;Bachorowski & Owren, 1995;Simonov & Frolov, 1973) have failed to identify acoustic patterns specific to different emotions. Instead, most acoustic changes measured in real or induced emotional speech can most parsimoniously be explained in terms of the general physiological arousal characteristic of different emotions. This contrasts with the theoretical view (e.g., Scherer, 1986) that emotions affect the acoustic characteristics of speech along multiple dimensions in a manner similar to the pattern of physiological changes that accompany emotion (e.g., Bradley, Codispoti, Cuthbert, & Lang, 2001;Cacioppo, Klein, Bernston, & Hatfield, 1993).The reasons for the paucity of research on real or elicited emotional speech have been described elsewhere (e.g., Johnstone, van Reekum, & Scherer, 2001;Scherer, Johnstone, & Klasmeyer, 2003). These include the practical difficulty of inducing emotions in the laboratory and the fact that whatever emotional information is carried in speech is often shrouded or masked by other aspects (e.g., linguistic, social, cultural) of the speech signal, as well as the relatively recent development of affordable and effective speech analysis software and hardware. One of the major impediments has been the difficulty of obtaining high-quality, controlled sound recordings of real emotions. A solution to this has been the use of computer tasks and games to induce emotional responses, or at least ...

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The effects of difficulty and gain versus loss on vocal physiology and acoustics

et al. 2007

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“…26, for a thorough discussion of this point) and human vocalization is also partially determined by such social "display rules" (8,17). Scherer et al (14,50,51) have introduced the distinction between push effects and pull effects to distinguish among the determining factors that operate on vocalization.…”

Section: The Externalization Of Emotion In the Voicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most importantly, researchers in this area need to differentiate emotional states much more precisely, particularly with respect to subdued and aroused types of the same emotion family. For example, the anger family contains both cold anger, a subdued form, and hot anger, a highly aroused form of anger with highly different physiological and expressive characteristics (3,50). It is to be expected that there will be a sizable increase in the discriminative power of the acoustic parameters when both of these requiremeats are met.…”

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Expression of emotion in voice and music

1995

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Summary: Vocal communication of emotion is biologically adaptive for socially living species and has therefore evolved in a phylogenetically continuous manner. Human affect bursts or interjections can be considered close parallels to animal affect vocalizations. The development of speech, unique to the human species, has relied on the voice as a carrier signal, and thus emotion effects on the voice become audible during speech. This article reviews (a) the evidence on listeners' ability to accurately identify a speaker's emotion from voice cues alone, (b) the research efforts trying to isolate the acoustic features that determine listener judgments, and (c) the findings on actual acoustic concomitants of a speaker's emotional state (real or portrayed by actors). Finally, based on speculations about the joint origin of speech and vocal music in nonlinguistic affect vocalizations, similarities of emotion expression in speech and music are discussed.

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“…6), there has been a fair amount of work on emotional expression in speech (see review, refs. [7][8][9], and the approach taken in this area of research could provide a model for similar work on emotional expression in singing.…”

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Acoustic concomitants of emotional expression in operatic singing: The case of lucia in Ardi gli incensi

Siegwart

Scherer

1995

Journal of Voice

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Sununary: Two excerpts from the cadenza in Ardi gli incensi from Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lammermoor were acoustically analyzed for five recorded versions of the cadenza by Toti dal Monte, Maria Callas, Renata Scotto, Joan Sutherland, and Edita Gruberova. These acoustic parameters of the singing voices were correlated with preference and emotional expression judgments, based on pairwise comparisons, made by a group of experienced listenerjudges. In addition to showing major differences in the voice quality of the five "dive" studied, the acoustic parameters suggested which vocal cues affect listener judgments. Two component scores, based on a factorial--dimensional analysis of the acoustic parameters, predicted 84% of the variance in the preference ratings.

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Vocal Measurement of Emotion

Cited by 67 publications

References 42 publications

The effects of difficulty and gain versus loss on vocal physiology and acoustics

The effects of difficulty and gain versus loss on vocal physiology and acoustics

Expression of emotion in voice and music

Acoustic concomitants of emotional expression in operatic singing: The case of lucia in Ardi gli incensi

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