Features of emotional voices: Focus in differences between expression and recognition
Tomoko Suzuki, Naoyoshi Tamura · The Japanese journal of psychology · 2006
This study investigated the relationship between expressed emotions through voices and emotions judged from the voices. In Study 1, to prove the judgment of emotions in speech, 21 participants evaluated emotions expressed by an actress. The average accuracy rate was 67.6%. Some emotions are more likely to be interpreted incorrectly than other emotions. The similarities of emotional categories caused some misjudgments. In Study 2, verifying the universality of judgment, 25 participants judged emotions expressed by 23 speakers. The average accuracy rate was 48.6%. Similar to the result of the study 1, there were some misjudgments on specific emotions; between sadness and relax, joy and relax, fear and sadness, and surprise and anger. To prove the role of acoustic cues, we examined the similarities of physical features in emotions using speech-analysis. Some emotions have similarities of vocal features and some have similarities of emotional categories. In conclusion, this study suggests that the similarities of vocal features and emotional categories lead to the judgments of emotions.