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Related Experiment Videos

Affective speech elicited with a computer game.

Tom Johnstone1, Carien M van Reekum, Kathryn Hird

  • 1University of Western Australia, Department of Psychology, Perth, WAU, Australia. itjohnstone@wisc.edu

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
|December 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Emotional speech changes are influenced by more than just arousal. Valence and goal conduciveness in a computer game significantly altered vocal characteristics, supporting multidimensional emotion theories.

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Acoustic Phonetics
  • Speech Science

Background:

  • Emotional expression in speech is complex.
  • Previous research often focused on arousal as a primary dimension.
  • Understanding other factors like valence is crucial for a comprehensive model.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if emotional speech changes reflect factors beyond arousal, specifically valence.
  • To analyze vocal characteristics associated with different emotional states induced by a controlled environment.
  • To test the adequacy of a single arousal dimension in explaining emotion-related vocal variations.

Main Methods:

  • Elicited natural emotional speech from 30 adolescents using a computer game.
  • Manipulated game events to be goal-conducive or obstructive.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Incorporated pleasant or unpleasant sounds.
  • Performed acoustic analysis on voice samples.

    • Main Results:

    • Vocal features like mean energy, fundamental frequency, duration, and voicing proportion varied with goal conduciveness.
    • Spectral energy distribution was influenced by pleasantness manipulations.
    • Pitch dynamics were affected by the interaction between pleasantness and goal conduciveness.

    Conclusions:

    • A single arousal dimension is insufficient to explain all emotion-related vocal changes.
    • Findings support multidimensional theories of emotional response patterning in speech.
    • Vocal emotional expression is modulated by valence and situational context.