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Dimensions of recognition: Visual vs. Vocal expression of emotion

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Summary

Portrayals of 12 emotional states were presented to observers in three experimental conditions-(a) photographic slides of facial expression, (b) tape recordings of vocal expression, and (c) a combination of visual and vocal stimuli. Factor analyses of observers’ scalar responses to the stimuli suggested the following:

  1. 1.

    Dimensions of recognition are applicable to perception of emotions in vocal as well as visual presentations.

  2. 2.

    At least two dimensions-general evaluation andactivity- may have some generality between visual and vocal modes and across different emotional states. A third dimension,social control, may have been unique to the present design due to the extremes of the expressions involved.

  3. 3.

    Perception ofactivity in photographs vs. tape recordings of emotional portrayals seems most susceptible to individual scale differences-a phenomenon which might be characterized as“modality-scale” interaction.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wisconsin, USA

    Frederick Williams (assistant professor and director of the Speech Experimental Laboratory) & Barbara Sundene (graduate student and research assistant)

Authors
  1. Frederick Williams
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  2. Barbara Sundene
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Additional information

This paper is based, in part, upon results reported in Miss Sundene’s master’s thesis, “The Generality of Affective Reaction to Visual and Vocal Expressives,” University of Wisconsin, 1964.

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Williams, F., Sundene, B. Dimensions of recognition: Visual vs. Vocal expression of emotion. AVCR 13, 44–52 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02770781

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02770781

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