Perception of emotion in face and voice: Crosscultural comparison
Akihiro Tanaka, Ai Koizumi, Hisato Imai, Saori Hiramatsu, Eriko Hiramoto, Beatrice de Gelder
Poster
Time: 2009-06-30 09:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Last modified: 2009-06-04
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies have shown that when there is an incongruency between the emotions expressed in face and voice, perception of the emotion in one modality is biased by the other modality. This crossmodal bias effect is presumably automatic as it occurs even under instructions to base the judgement exclusively on one modalitiy. The present study investigates how cultural experience modulates emotional processing of face and voice.
Methods
Participants were native speakers of Japanese (N = 24), Dutch (N = 20), and English (N = 17). Dynamic face and voice were recorded from the native speakers of Japanese and Dutch. In the experiment, face (happy or anger) and voice (happy or anger) were presented simultaneously (i.e. the emotions of the face and the voice were congruent or incongruent). In the face task, participants categorized the emotion of the faces into happy or anger. In the voice task, participants categorized the emotion of the voices.
Results
In the voice task (Figure 1), we obtained a large congruency effect, suggesting that emotional valence of voice is “affectively ventriloquized� by that of dynamic emotional images. Main effect of Group was also significant, showing that Japanese people are better at recognizing the emotion by voice. Vocal emotion of Japanese speakers was better recognized by Japanese participants (Figure 1a) whereas that of Dutch speakers was better recognized by Dutch groups (Figure 1b). In the face task (Figure 2), the performances were almost perfect in all of the conditions. However, there was a small but significant cogruency effect only in Japanese group.
Conclusions
Japanese people are sensitive to the emotion of the voice regardless of whether they pay attention to face or voice. Vocal emotion of native speakers was better recognized by both Japanese and Dutch groups. Emotional valence of voice is “affectively ventriloquized� by dynamic emotional faces.
Previous studies have shown that when there is an incongruency between the emotions expressed in face and voice, perception of the emotion in one modality is biased by the other modality. This crossmodal bias effect is presumably automatic as it occurs even under instructions to base the judgement exclusively on one modalitiy. The present study investigates how cultural experience modulates emotional processing of face and voice.
Methods
Participants were native speakers of Japanese (N = 24), Dutch (N = 20), and English (N = 17). Dynamic face and voice were recorded from the native speakers of Japanese and Dutch. In the experiment, face (happy or anger) and voice (happy or anger) were presented simultaneously (i.e. the emotions of the face and the voice were congruent or incongruent). In the face task, participants categorized the emotion of the faces into happy or anger. In the voice task, participants categorized the emotion of the voices.
Results
In the voice task (Figure 1), we obtained a large congruency effect, suggesting that emotional valence of voice is “affectively ventriloquized� by that of dynamic emotional images. Main effect of Group was also significant, showing that Japanese people are better at recognizing the emotion by voice. Vocal emotion of Japanese speakers was better recognized by Japanese participants (Figure 1a) whereas that of Dutch speakers was better recognized by Dutch groups (Figure 1b). In the face task (Figure 2), the performances were almost perfect in all of the conditions. However, there was a small but significant cogruency effect only in Japanese group.
Conclusions
Japanese people are sensitive to the emotion of the voice regardless of whether they pay attention to face or voice. Vocal emotion of native speakers was better recognized by both Japanese and Dutch groups. Emotional valence of voice is “affectively ventriloquized� by dynamic emotional faces.