Cross-language study of vocal correlates of affective states

This paper is concerned with a cross-cultural study of vocal correlates of affect. Speakers of 4 languages, Irish-English, Russian, Spanish and Japanese, were asked to judge affective content of synthesised stimuli of three types: (1) stimuli varying in voice quality, with a neutral pitch contour; (2) stimuli with affect-related f0 contours and modal voice; and (3) stimuli in which specific voice qualities and affect-related f0 contours were combined. Some of the main results are illustrated and point to similarities among the language groups as well as some striking cross-language/culture differences in how these stimuli map to affect.

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