Transient Voice Changes Associated with Emotional Stimuli

Abstract

The Latin persona, from which the word "personality" is derived, originally referred to the mouth of a mask used by actors. The word meant "the voice passes through." With time, the concrete emphasis on voice was lost, and the word developed its present abstract sense.³ However, the origin of the word "personality" reflects the intimacy of its relationship with voice. Emotions constitute that aspect of personality which is most immediately related to voice. The expression of emotion by the voice has been the subject of much experimental investigation. Comprehensive reviews of the work in this area may be found in Sanford,⁴ Moses,³ and Kramer.² The methods used for the great majority of these studies employ human judges. This laboratory has used electronic analysis of the voice for the study of the communication of emotion. Although studies based on subjective judgments have been extremely valuable in