Vocal Expression of Affect

Abstract

With the advent of new technology, the most important impetus for the proliferation of studies on vocal affect expression has been the recent interest in the large-scale application of speech technology in automatic speech and speaker recognition and speech synthesis. This chapter advocates the Brunswikian lens model as a meta-structure for studies in this area, especially because it alerts researchers to important design considerations in studies of vocal affect expression. Vocal expression involves the joint operation of push and pull effects, and the interaction of psychobiological and sociocultural factors, both of which urgently need to be addressed in future studies. So far there is very little cross-language and cross-cultural research in this area, which is surprising because phonetic features of language may constrain the affect signaling potential of voice cues.