An examination of the Kuleshov effect using still photographs.

The goal of the present study was to examine whether the effect of visual context on the interpretation of facial expression from an actor's face could be produced using isolated photographic stills, instead of the typical dynamic film sequences used to demonstrate the effect. Two-photograph sequences consisting of a context photograph varying in pleasantness and a photograph of an actor's neutral face were presented. Participants performed a liking rating task for the context photograph (to ensure attention to the stimulus) and they performed three tasks for the face stimulus: labeling the emotion portrayed by the actor, rating valence, and rating arousal.

Art Expertise and the Processing of Titled Abstract Art.

The effect of art expertise on viewers' processing of titled visual artwork was examined. The study extended the research of Leder, Carbon, and Ripsas by explicitly selecting art novices and art experts. The study was designed to test assumptions about how expertise modulates context in the form of titles for artworks.

Distortions in the memory of the pitch of speech.

Corneille, Huart, Becquart, & Brédart (2004) found that people remember ambiguous race faces as closer to a race prototype than they actually are. In three studies, we examined whether this memory bias generalizes to voice memory. In Studies 1 and 2, participants listened to synthesized male and female speech samples (high, moderate, or low pitch) and were asked to identify a voice target when paired against distracters higher or lower in pitch.

Sex differences in persuadability of human and computer-synthesized speech: meta-analysis of seven studies.

To examine sex differences in persuasiveness, we conducted a meta-analysis of seven studies from our laboratory on reactions to human versus computer-synthesized speech. We tested three hypotheses: (1) people would be more persuaded by human speech than by computer-synthesized speech, (2) women would be slightly more persuaded than men, and (3) the sex difference would be more pronounced for human speech than for synthetic speech. While there was support for the first two hypotheses, there was none for the third.

The representation of smoking expectancies by single-word adjectives and their relationship to smoking characteristics.

A pool of single-word adjectives representing smoking outcome expectancies was derived and tested in two studies. In Study One, smoking-related words were generated and then clustered together to form 39 categories representing smoking expectancy nodes. Analysis of the number of times words in each category were generated indicated that expectancies varied as a function of smoking status (measured at two levels: Ever smoked daily vs.

Effects of variation in emotional tone of voice on speech perception.

The effects of variation from stimulus to stimulus in emotional tone of voice on speech perception were examined through a series of perceptual experiments. Stimuli were recorded from human speakers who produced utterances in tones of voice designed to convey affective information. Then, stimuli varying in talker voice and emotional tone were presented to listeners for perceptual matching and classification.

Effects of perceived disability on persuasiveness of computer-synthesized speech.

Are perceptions of computer-synthesized speech altered by the belief that the person using this technology is disabled? In a 2 x 2 factorial design, participants completed an attitude pretest and were randomly assigned to watch an actor deliver a persuasive appeal under 1 of the following 4 conditions: disabled or nondisabled using normal speech and disabled or nondisabled using computer-synthesized speech. Participants then completed a posttest survey and a series of questionnaires assessing perceptions of voice, speaker, and message. Natural speech was perceived more favorably and was more persuasive than computer-synthesized speech.