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Author Spotlight: Investigating the Impact of Emotional Prosodies on Voice Recognition and Perception
Published on: August 9, 2024
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Do nonlinear vocal phenomena signal negative valence or high emotion intensity?
Andrey Anikin1,2, Katarzyna Pisanski2, David Reby2
1Division of Cognitive Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Royal Society Open Science
|January 25, 2021
Summary
Nonlinear vocal phenomena (NLPs) in human sounds often signal negative emotions. However, context can shift perception, showing these harsh vocal features may also express intense positive emotions.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Acoustics
- Bioacoustics
Background:
- Nonlinear vocal phenomena (NLPs) are acoustic features in animal and human vocalizations.
- These features can convey urgency and attract attention, but are often associated with negative states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if NLPs enhance the perception of negative affect or solely indicate high arousal.
- To determine the influence of context on the interpretation of NLPs in ambiguous vocalizations.
Main Methods:
- Synthetic nonverbal human vocalizations (gasps, moans, roars, screams) were manipulated with NLPs (subharmonics, sidebands, chaos).
- Playback experiments with 900 listeners assessed perceived valence and emotion intensity across positive, negative, and neutral contexts.
Main Results:
- NLPs significantly increased the perceived aversiveness of vocalizations across all contexts.
- NLPs also heightened perceived emotion intensity, especially in negative or neutral contexts.
- Positive vocalizations (roars of achievement) with NLPs were perceived as more intense, showing context-dependent generalization.
Conclusions:
- Ambiguous vocalizations with NLPs are strongly perceived as negative.
- Sufficient contextual cues allow NLPs to be interpreted as expressions of intense positive affect.
- Context is crucial for decoding the emotional valence of nonverbal vocalizations with NLPs.
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