Encoding conditions affect recognition of vocally expressed emotions across cultures.

Although the expression of emotions in humans is considered to be largely universal, cultural effects contribute to both emotion expression and recognition. To disentangle the interplay between these factors, play-acted and authentic (non-instructed) vocal expressions of emotions were used, on the assumption that cultural effects may contribute differentially to the recognition of staged and spontaneous emotions. Speech tokens depicting four emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear) were obtained from German radio archives and re-enacted by professional actors, and presented to 120 participants from Germany, Romania, and Indonesia.

Vocal expression of emotions in normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants.

The vocalizations of seven normally hearing (NH) and seven severely hearing-impaired (HI) infants were compared to find out the influence of auditory feedback on preverbal utterances. It was tested whether there are general differences in vocalizations between NH and HI infants, and whether specific emotional states affect the vocal production of NH and HI infants in the same way. First, the acoustic structure of the three most common vocal types was analyzed; second, the composition of vocal sequences was examined.

The influence of hearing impairment on preverbal emotional vocalizations of infants.

The aim of the study was to compare the vocalizations of normally hearing and profoundly hearing-impaired infants in the first year of life. After the first recording all hearing-impaired infants were provided with hearing aids. We focused on three issues: (1) Are there different types of preverbal vocalizations in the vocal repertoire of normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants? (2) Do the vocal types emerge at similar age? (3) Does hearing impairment influence the acoustic structure of the preverbal vocalization types common to normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants? The study shows that both normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants have the same vocal repertoire.

Acoustic analyses of developmental changes and emotional expression in the preverbal vocalizations of infants.

The nonverbal vocal utterances of seven normally hearing infants were studied within their first year of life with respect to age- and emotion-related changes. Supported by a multiparametric acoustic analysis it was possible to distinguish one inspiratory and eleven expiratory call types. Most of the call types appeared within the first two months; some emerged in the majority of infants not until the 5th ("laugh") or 7th month ("babble").