Vocal Emotions and Adverse Listening: What the Acoustics of Emotional Speech Can Teach Us About Speech Perception

Participate via Zoom: https://utexas.zoom.us/j/89800528173

Speaker

Jessica M. Alexander
Department of Linguistics
The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

Human speech is a neurobiological marvel, transmitting complex ideas from one brain to another by means of variations in air pressure. But speech does so much more than communicate ideas: it constructs social relations. As a result, human factors are important on both sides of the conversation. The speaker’s emotional disposition toward their message modifies the acoustic structure of the speech signal, and the listener must decode the message while simultaneously interpreting its pragmatic and social implications. In this talk, we will explore several challenging, real-world listening situations to see how emotional intonations interact with the acoustic environment and affect the ability of the listener to both perceive the linguistic content of speech and to identify the speaker’s emotional intent.