When voices get emotional: A corpus of nonverbal vocalizations for research on emotion processing

Nonverbal vocal expressions, such as laughter, sobbing, and screams, are an important source of emotional information in social interactions. However, the investigation of how we process these vocal cues entered the research agenda only recently. Here, we introduce a new corpus of nonverbal vocalizations, which we recorded and submitted to perceptual and acoustic validation. It consists of 121 sounds expressing four positive emotions (achievement/triumph, amusement, sensual pleasure, and relief) and four negative ones (anger, disgust, fear, and sadness), produced by two female and two male speakers. For perceptual validation, a forced choice task was used (n = 20), and ratings were collected for the eight emotions, valence, arousal, and authenticity (n = 20). We provide these data, detailed for each vocalization, for use by the research community. High recognition accuracy was found for all emotions (86 %, on average), and the sounds were reliably rated as communicating the intended expressions. The vocalizations were measured for acoustic cues related to temporal aspects, intensity, fundamental frequency (f0), and voice quality. These cues alone provide sufficient information to discriminate between emotion categories, as indicated by statistical classification procedures; they are also predictors of listeners’ emotion ratings, as indicated by multiple regression analyses. This set of stimuli seems a valuable addition to currently available expression corpora for research on emotion processing. It is suitable for behavioral and neuroscience research and might as well be used in clinical settings for the assessment of neurological and psychiatric patients. The corpus can be downloaded from Supplementary Materials.     

“Hearing voices”: Auditory hallucinations as failure of top‐down control of bottom‐up perceptual processes

Auditory hallucination is a key characteristic of schizophrenia that seriously debilitates the patient, with consequences for social engagement with others. Hallucinatory experiences are also observed in healthy individuals in the general population who report “hearing voices” in the absence of an external acoustic input. A view on auditory hallucinations and “hearing voices” is presented that regards such phenomena as perceptual processes, originating from speech perception areas in the left temporal lobe. Healthy individuals “hearing voices” are, however, often aware that the experience comes from inner thought processes, which is not reported by hallucinating patients. A perceptual model can therefore, not alone explain the difference in the phenomenology of how the “voices heard” are attributed to either an inner or outer cause. An expanded model is thus presented which takes into account top‐down cognitive control, localized to prefrontal cortical areas, to inhibit and re‐attribute the perceptual mis‐representations. The expanded model is suggested to be empirically validated using a dichotic listening speech perception paradigm with instructions for top‐down control of attention focus to either the right or left side in auditory space. It is furthermore suggested to use fMRI to validate the temporal and frontal lobe neuronal correlates of the cognitive processes involved in auditory hallucinations.     

The effect of positive feelings on risk taking: When the chips are down

Two studies conducted simultaneously investigated the influence of positive affect on risk taking. Results of the study, which employed an actual measure of subjects' willingness to bet something of value, supported the prediction of an interaction between level of risk and positive affect: subjects who had reason to be feeling elated bet more than control subjects on a low-risk bet, but wagered less than controls on a high-risk bet. At the same time, in contrast, a study involving hypothetical risk-taking showed that in general subjects were more willing to take the chance as probability of success went up; but that elated subjects were more daring than controls on a “long shot.” Differences in hypothetical vs real risk taking were noted, and the complexity (the interaction) of the influence of positive feelings on real risk taking was emphasized. The results were related to other research suggesting an influence of feeling states on cognitive processes and decision making.     

The mean and variance of the selection differential after top‐down selection from a mixture of normal samples

A procedure is presented for determining the mean and variance of the selection differential for top‐down selections in which the candidates come from populations that have a different average score on the selection measure. Although the procedure is based on the same stochastic model and requires identical data to the currently available method for estimating the mean selection differential, it has the advantage that the resulting expressions are valid for finite‐sample selection decisions and that the variance of the selection differential can also be assessed. The difference between the two procedures is illustrated by means of an example application, and it is shown how the present results are particularly helpful in determining the expected utility of personnel selection decisions.     

Pro‐peace or anti‐war: The effect of emotions primed by protest songs on emotions toward in‐group and out‐group in conflict

Members of societies in conflict hold stable positive and negative views, and emotions of the in‐group and out‐group, respectively. Music is a potent tool to express and evoke emotions. It is a social product created within a social and political context, reflecting, and commenting it. Protest songs aim to change views and attitudes toward ongoing conflicts. Their message may be expressed positively (pro‐peace songs) or negatively (anti‐war songs). Previous research has shown that evoking emotions such as guilt toward the in‐group or empathy toward the out‐group may influence attitudes toward reconciliation. The present research, conducted in Israel, presents three studies investigating whether emotions evoked by positive or negative protest songs may influence in‐group members' guilt toward the in‐group (Israeli Jews) and empathy toward the out‐group (Palestinians). Studies 1 and 2 show that negative emotions evoked by negative protests songs predicted both empathy and guilt when the out‐group is considered as a whole (Study 1) or as a particular individual (Study 2). Study 2 in addition showed that empathy predicts an altruistic decision regarding an out‐group member. Emotions evoked by lyrics alone (Study 3) did not contribute to explained variance in either guilt or empathy, nor the altruistic decision. Results suggest that negative emotions expressed by negative protest songs, focused on the in‐group, are more effective in influencing attitudes toward out‐groups. Results are discussed in the context of group emotions in conflict and the role of protest songs in intergroup relations.     

Discrete emotions effect on consumer evaluation and behaviour: A contextual perspective and directions for future research

Emotions are the focal factor influencing consumer evaluation and behaviour. However, the present literature remains fragmented owing to conflicting findings on effects of emotions. Identifying moderator(s) of emotion's effect resolves these inconsistencies and helps comprehend when emotions are effective marketing tools. This study jointly reviews the literature on eight discrete emotions spanning over two decades (2000–2021), synthesizing and analysing the research on moderators attenuating, intensifying, or even reversing the effect of discrete emotions, documenting them at an individual and situational level. Based on that, an integrated contextually bounded emotion effect framework is advanced that resolves inconsistencies in literature and enables us to (1) draw instructive insights around discrete emotion dynamic effects owing to contextual variability, (2) identify similarities/differences within/across emotions and contextual factors (3) provide research-informed managerial implication and directions for future research.     

When your heart is in your mouth: the effect of second language use on negative emotions

Research on bilingualism and emotions has shown stronger emotional responses in the native language (L1) compared to a foreign language. We investigated the potential of purposeful second language (L2) use as a means of decreasing the experience of psychological distress. Native Swedish speakers read and answered questions about negative and neutral texts in their L1 (Swedish) and their L2 (English) and were asked to rate their level of distress before or after the questions. The texts and associated questions were either written in the same (within-language), or different languages (cross-language). We found that within-language trials when the text was written in participants’ native language (Swedish–Swedish) resulted in an increase of distress, whilst cross-language trials (Swedish–English) resulted in a decrease of distress. This implies that purposeful second language use can diminish levels of distress experienced following a negative event encoded in one's first language.     

When the central executive lets us down: schemas, attention, and load in a generative working memory task

Participants were asked to generate a single sequence of numbers in between two bounds. By varying the requested sequence length and way in which the question is posed, this paradigm enables assessment of the contributions to central executive functioning of schema, focus of attention, and load. With sequences of three or four numbers, a quarter of the sample failed fully to comply with the instructions. They generated an incorrect number of numbers or went outside the specified bounds. With sequences of six numbers, more than half of the sample infringed one or more of the constraints. Participants consistently generated sequences with particular generic properties. The overall frequency and patterns of infringements suggest that a substantial proportion of participants focused their conceptual attention on sequence content and often neglected the problem of how thelength and boundary constraints were going to be evaluated either before or during response delivery.     

When theory abandons us – wading through the 'swampy lowlands' of practice

This paper uses three clinical examples to illustrate the experience of feeling abandoned by theory – times when no one model has sufficient signposts to show the way. Therapy is considered to be an endlessly creative interpersonal encounter, to which the client brings the major resource for change. It is argued that the therapist is influenced by worldview, values and beliefs, and personal style, as well as by theoretical model. Further, it is suggested that there is a need to acknowledge and investigate the limitations of therapy. An argument is made for 'going beyond the model', for seeking an ethical practice based on what our clients tell us is important, and for sharing across models the common dilemmas and goals of therapy. Clinicians are encouraged to articulate their own 'swampy lowland' principles of practice.     

Gain or non‐loss: The message matching effect of regulatory focus on moral judgements of other‐orientation lies

Previous studies found that individuals with promotion focus are more likely to be persuaded by messages framed in terms of gain‐related words; individuals with prevention focus are more likely to be persuaded by messages framed in terms of loss‐related words. This is known as the message matching effect of regulatory focus. The present study extended this effect into the field of moral judgement of other‐orientation lies. Two experiments were conducted, revealing that (a) individuals with promotion focus judged gain‐framed other‐orientation lies to be more moral, while individuals with prevention focus judged non‐loss‐framed other‐orientation lies to be more moral; and (b) the subjective processing fluency had a partial mediating role in the message matching effect. Theoretical implications and future research directions were discussed.     

On the clarity of expressive and contextual information in the recognition of emotions: A methodological critique

Ekman, Friesen and Ellsworth's (1982b) influential review on emotional expression and context prescribed the current standard criteria for selecting clear and comparable faces and contexts. These recommendations might not pay enough attention to the peculiarities of contextual information. Criteria of clarity for contextual stimuli should be grounded in the process of categorization of social situations (e.g. prototypicality and salience). A set of criteria of contextual clarity were designed according to this line of argument. The resulting contextual stimuli were employed in a replication of Wallbott's (1988) experiment on recognition of emotions through discrepant sources of information. In contrast with previous studies, subjects' judgments were equally predictable from expression and context.     

When happiness makes us selfish, but sadness makes us fair: Affective influences on interpersonal strategies in the dictator game

Does temporary mood influence how fair or selfish we are in interpersonal situations? These three experiments predicted and found that when people have the power to allocate scarce resources between themselves and others in the dictator game, positive mood increased selfishness, and sad mood produced greater fairness. In a public setting (Experiment 1), happy persons kept more raffle tickets to themselves when making allocations, and Experiment 2 confirmed this effect in the laboratory. Experiment 3 showed that mood effects on selfishness were strongest when the external norms for fairness were relaxed. The results are discussed in terms recent affect-cognition theories, suggesting that positive mood recruits more assimilative, internally focused processing, while negative affect promotes more externally oriented, accommodative processing and thus greater concern with social norms. The implications of the findings for everyday interpersonal decisions are considered.     

When preschoolers follow their eyes and older children follow their noses: visuo‐olfactory social affective matching in childhood

Recognition of emotional facial expressions is a crucial skill for adaptive behavior that most often occurs in a multi‐sensory context. Affective matching tasks have been used across development to investigate how people integrate facial information with other senses. Given the relative affective strength of olfaction and its relevance in mediating social information since birth, we assessed olfactory–visual matching abilities in a group of 140 children between the ages of 3 and 11 years old. We presented one of three odor primes (rose, fish and no‐odor, rated as pleasant or unpleasant by individual children) before a facial choice task (happy vs. disgusted face). Children were instructed to select one of two faces. As expected, children of all ages tended to choose happy faces. Children younger than 5 years of age were biased towards choosing the happy face, irrespective of the odor smelled. After age 5, an affective matching strategy guided children's choices. Smelling a pleasant odor predicted the choice of happy faces, whereas smelling the unpleasant or fish odor predicted the choice of disgusted faces. The present study fills a gap in the developmental literature on olfactory‐visual affective strategies that affect decision‐making, and represents an important step towards understanding the underlying developmental processes that shape the typical social mind.     

When pooping babies become more appealing: the effects of nonconscious goal pursuit on experienced emotions

In this report, we argue that the intensity of the emotions people experience is partly determined by the goals they nonconsciously pursue, and that this effect is functional in nature: Emotions are modulated in ways that may increase the probability of goal achievement. To test this hypothesis, we primed female participants with a motherhood goal and then measured their level of disgust in response to mildly disgusting pictures. Priming led to a reduction of disgust in response to goal-relevant stimuli (e.g., pictures of babies with runny noses) but not goal-irrelevant stimuli. This effect was moderated by the women's probability of conception, a proxy of their ability to pursue the motherhood goal.     

The sustained effect of emotional signals on neural processing in 12‐month‐olds

Around the end of the first year of life, infants develop a social referencing ability – using emotional information from others to guide their own behavior. Much research on social referencing has focused on changes in behavior in response to emotional information. The present study was an investigation of the changes in neural responses that underlie social referencing behavior, reflected in event‐related potentials (ERPs). Twenty‐six 12‐month‐olds participated in a single‐session visit in which ERPs were recorded both immediately before and after a behavioral intervention in which infants' caregivers provided positive, negative or neutral information about each of three stimuli (ERP data available for n = 17). After the intervention, infants devoted more neural resources to processing negative versus neutral and positive information, as observed in early and late positive‐going components. Changes in neural responses from the pre‐ to post‐intervention recordings clarify this observation, indicating a sustained response in the negative and positive conditions, and a decrease in the neutral condition, suggesting an attenuation effect in the neutral condition. Further, infants who attended most to the objects in the behavioral intervention showed increased neural responses in the negative condition and decreased responses in the positive condition. Taken together, these findings suggest that infants' neural responses are differentially affected by positive, negative and neutral information. Furthermore, the findings highlight the importance of measuring the change in neural responses to better interpret post‐experience responses.     

Investigating the effect of contextual factors on driving: An experimental study

Alongside human factors, contextual factors are believed to have an ongoing and complex impact on driving outcomes. However, how and to what extent the components of context influence driving outcomes (e.g. rule violations, crash, stress, fatigue) are far beyond full understanding. The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of weather condition, lighting condition and traffic density on driving outcomes. Thirty-six volunteers were enrolled to participate into a driving simulator-based experiment. Each participant was required to complete twelve trials of simulated driving under different sets of scenarios. Driving outcome was measured by five dependent variables: frequency of speeding, frequency of lane deviations, number of correct sign recognition, completion time and workload. The results showed the frequency of speeding was significantly affected by weather condition, lighting condition and traffic density. Lighting condition had a significant effect on number of correct sign recognition. Weather condition, lighting condition and traffic density had significant effects on task completion time. Weather condition and lighting condition had significant effects on driver’s workload. The implications of the results could help traffic safety professionals better understand the risk factors that may lead to human errors during driving. Practically, countermeasures could be inspired and developed to mitigate the adverse impacts brought by driving context to minimum.     

物体拓扑性质对背景线索效应的影响及其加工机制

背景线索效应是指在视觉搜索中由于场景的重复曝光而产生的行为便利。而以往研究关注于刺激的欧式性质所代表的属性信息对背景线索效应的影响, 然而在视知觉加工过程中扮演重要角色的拓扑性质对背景线索效应的影响仍缺乏相关实证研究。因此, 研究采用视觉搜索任务, 通过操控不同场景中刺激的拓扑性质或欧式性质的变化, 考察拓扑性质与欧式性质两种属性信息对背景线索效应的调制。结果发现：(1)拓扑性质和欧式性质与目标之间的联结关系均可促进行为反应, 获得背景线索效应; (2)视觉学习机制对拓扑性质的重复性更加敏感, 并且拓扑性质与目标之间联结关系的稳定性相对于欧式性质与目标之间的联结关系稳定性对于背景线索效应的获得具有更为重要的意义。     

The rich get richer,the poor get even: Perceived socioeconomic position influences micro‐social distributions of wealth

Economic inequality has a robust negative effect on a range of important societal outcomes, including health, wellbeing, and education. Yet, it remains insufficiently understood why, how, and by whom unequal systems tend to be perpetuated. In two studies we examine whether psychological mindsets adopted by the wealthy and the poor in their micro‐social transactions act to perpetuate or challenge inequality. We hypothesized that occupying a wealthier socioeconomic position promotes the pursuit of self‐interest and contributes to inequality maintenance; poorer socioeconomic position, on the other hand, should promote the pursuit of fairness and equality restoration. In Study 1, participants completed an ultimatum game as proposers after being primed to believe they are wealthier or poorer, offering money to either poor or wealthy responders. As expected, the wealthy pursued their self‐interest and the net effect of this behavior contributes to the maintenance of inequality. Conversely, the poor pursued fairness and the net effect of this behavior challenges inequality. In Study 2, participants were responders deciding whether to accept or reject unfair distributions. Compared to the wealthier, the poorer challenged inequality by rejecting unequal offers. The links between micro‐social processes and macro‐societal inequality are discussed.