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Authentic and play-acted vocal emotion expressions reveal acoustic differences
Rebecca Jürgens1, Kurt Hammerschmidt, Julia Fischer
1Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, German Primate Center Göttingen, Germany.
Frontiers in Psychology
|August 18, 2011
Summary
This study compared vocal expressions of genuine and acted emotions. While acted emotions show distinct voice quality and pitch contours, differences in arousal were not supported, suggesting subtle encoding variations influence perception.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Linguistics
- Speech Science
Background:
- Play-acted emotional expressions are common in daily life, theater, film, and emotion research.
- Previous research has not clarified if acted emotions match spontaneous emotional expressions.
- Understanding these differences is crucial for emotion research and performance arts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether acting influences the vocal expression of emotion.
- To compare vocal characteristics of naturally occurring emotions with actors' portrayals.
- To test the hypothesis that play-acted emotions are more stereotyped and aroused.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of radio sequences of naturally occurring emotions and actors' portrayals.
- Acoustic analysis of speech segments focusing on voice quality and F(0)-contour (pitch).
- Statistical analysis to evaluate differences and test arousal-related hypotheses.
Main Results:
- Speech segments from play-acted and authentic expressions showed significant differences in voice quality.
- Acted emotional speech tokens exhibited a more variable fundamental frequency (F(0)) contour.
- The observed variations in acted emotions were not attributable to increased arousal levels.
Conclusions:
- Vocal expressions of play-acted and spontaneous emotions differ in measurable acoustic features, specifically voice quality and pitch variability.
- Perceptual differences between acted and authentic emotional stimuli are not solely due to arousal.
- Subtle, implicitly perceptible differences in vocal encoding distinguish acted from spontaneous emotional expressions.
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