The perception of emotions by ear and by eye

Author(s): Vroomen, J.

Journal/Book: Cognition Emotion. 2000; 14: 27 Church Rd, Hove BN3 2FA, East Sussex, England. Psychology Press. 289-311.

Abstract: Emotions are expressed in the voice as well as on the face. As a first step to explore the question of their integration, we used a bimodal perception situation modelled after the McGurk paradigm, in which varying degrees of discordance can be created between the affects expressed in a face and in a tone of voice. Experiment I showed that subjects can effectively combine information from the two sources, in that identification of the emotion in the face is biased in the direction of the simultaneously presented tone of voice. Experiment 2 showed that this effect occurs also under instructions to base the judgement exclusively on the face. Experiment 3 showed the reverse effect, a bias from the emotion in the face on judgement of the emotion in the voice. These results strongly suggest the existence of mandatory bidirectional links between affect detection structures in vision and audition.

Note: Article de Gelder B, Tilburg Univ, Dept Psychol, Warandelaan 2, POB 90153, NL-5000 LE Tilburg, NETHERLANDS

Keyword(s): CATEGORICAL PERCEPTION; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS; VOCAL EXPRESSIONS; INVERTED FACES; HUMAN AMYGDALA; SPEECH; VOICE; RECOGNITION; LESIONS; FEAR

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