Work

Acoustic profiles of distinct emotional expressions in laughter

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: Although listeners are able to decode the underlying emotions embedded in acoustical laughter sounds, little is known about the acoustical cues that differentiate between the emotions. This study investigated the acoustical correlates of laughter expressing four different emotions: joy, tickling, taunting, and schadenfreude. Analysis of 43 acoustic parameters showed that the four emotions could be accurately discriminated on the basis of a small parameter set. Vowel quality contributed only minimally to emotional differentiation whereas prosodic parameters were more effective. Emotions are expressed by similar prosodic parameters in both laughter and speech.

Source: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

DOI: 10.1121/1.3139899

Authors: Diana P. Szameitat, Kai Alter, André J. Szameitat, Dirk Wildgruber, Annette Sterr, Chris J. Darwin

Institutions: University of Sussex, University of Tübingen, Newcastle University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, University of Surrey

Language: English

Topic: Phonetics and Phonology Research

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

OpenAlex ID: W1963554665

FWCI: 4.224

Cites: 55

Cited by: 85

Related to: 10