Communication of Verbal Modes of Expression

Abstract

Talkers were instructed to read neutral sentences and ‘sound happy’, or ‘sound bored’, etc. Listeners attempted to identify the intended mode of expression drawing their responses from a limited number of alternatives. Results are presented showing how the identification of modes of expression is affected by: (1) number of response alternatives, (2) noise, (3) whispering, and (4) temporal sampling. Reasonably high levels of performance may be achieved under conditions of reduced acoustic information.