Emma Rodero

Intonation and Emotion: Influence of Pitch Levels and Contour Type on Creating Emotions

Intonation is a vehicle for communication, which sometimes contributes greater meaning than the semantic content of speech itself. This prosodic element lends the message linguistic and paralinguistic meaning, which carries a highly significant communicative value when conveying emotional states. For this reason, this article analyses the use of intonation as an instrument for arousing various sensations in the listener. The aim was to verify which elements of intonation are more decisive to generate a specific sensation. Experimental research is conducted, in which certain pitch patterns (pitch levels and contour type) are assigned different emotions (joy, anxiety, sadness, and calmness) and are then listened to and assessed using a questionnaire with a bipolar scale of opposed pairs, by a sample audience comprising 100 individuals. The main conclusion drawn is that, although both the variables analyzed--pitch level and contour type--are representative of expressing emotions, contour type is more decisive. In all the models analyzed, contour type has been highly significant and constitutes the variable that has been determined as the final component for recognizing various emotions.

See It on a Radio Story: Sound Effects and Shots to Evoked Imagery and Attention on Audio Fiction

Radio’s capacity to stimulate the creation of mental images in the mind of its listeners has long been acknowledged. Nevertheless, research into mental imagery has focused principally on the study of visual stimuli, although studies into radio itself have mostly concerned the field of advertising. In this study, we examine the influence of two stimuli associated with auditory processing on radio: sound effects and sound shots. The chosen context for the study is that of a fictional story, or audio drama, through which to measure the role of these stimuli both in creating mental images in the listener’s mind and in maintaining his or her attention. Our findings demonstrate that the inclusion of descriptive sound effects and especially of sound shots in a fictional radio drama increases mental imagery and that a relationship exists between this increase and the degree of listener attention.Radio’s capacity to stimulate the creation of mental images in the mind of its listeners has long been acknowledged. Nevertheless, research into mental imagery has focused principally on the study of visual stimuli, although studies into radio itself have mostly concerned the field of advertising. In this study, we examine the influence of two stimuli associated with auditory processing on radio: sound effects and sound shots. The chosen context for the study is that of a fictional story, or audio drama, through which to measure the role of these stimuli both in creating mental images in the listener’s mind and in maintaining his or her attention. Our findings demonstrate that the inclusion of descriptive sound effects and especially of sound shots in a fictional radio drama increases mental imagery and that a relationship exists between this increase and the degree of listener attention.

Influence of Speech Rate and Information Density on Recognition: The Moderate Dynamic Mechanism

This article analyzes whether recognition in the news may be affected by speech rate and information density and addresses what the optimal level would need to be for information on the radio to be encoded and recognized as effectively as possible. The key question is whether the combination of these two factors has a decisive influence on cognitive processing, especially in the distribution of resources allocated and required to encode the message. The findings indicate that Speech Rate does have a decisive influence on recognition of information since it modifies the resources available for encoding the message. The higher the speed, the lower the information density should be and vice versa. The best result to achieve the greatest recognition is between 170 (high density) and 190 (low density) words per minute, confirming that a moderate dynamic mechanism takes place.

Stimulating the Imagination in a Radio Story: The Role of Presentation Structure and the Degree of Involvement of the Listener

It has always been stated that the radio is the invisible medium that has the greatest effect in stimulating the imagination of listeners. Therefore, this article intends to compare two kinds of presentation structure—dramatisation versus narration—in a fictional radio story to determine the extent to which the imagination is aroused and the point to which the listener becomes involved. The outcomes of the study point to the fact that the dramatised structure is the form of presentation that is best able to fulfil these aims.

A Training Model for Improving Journalists' Voice

Voice education is a crucial aspect for professionals (journalists, teachers, politicians, actors, etc.) who use their voices as a working tool. The main concerns about such education are that, first, there is little awareness of the importance of voice education, and second there is little research devoted to it. The consequences of this lack of training are indeed visible in professionals who suffer voice pathologies or work with little effectiveness. This study seeks to overcome this deficiency by proposing a training model tested with a control group and a pilot study. Speech samples from a group of experimental participants-journalism students-were collected before and after a training course designed to improve their main vocal and prosodic features. These samples were contrasted with a control group without training. Results indicated significant differences in all tested voice elements (breathing, articulation, loudness, pitch, jitter, speech rate, pauses, and stress) except for shimmer and harmonics. The participants were able to enhance their main vocal and prosodic elements, and therefore their expressiveness maintaining optimal vocal hygiene.

Effectiveness, attention, and recall of human and artificial voices in an advertising story. Prosody influence and functions of voices

Abstract Many users are exposed every day to artificial voices in their different devices. Because of this, there is a growing interest both in improving the quality of these voices and in analyzing how they are perceived and processed. However, very little research has been conducted to examine nonverbal elements such as prosody. Accordingly, the first purpose of this study is to determine how artificial voices compared to human voices are processed in a narrative advertising story modifying prosody regarding effectiveness, attention, concentration, and recall. The second objective is to evaluate their functions for different applications, advertising among them. The results show that human voices are assessed as more effective and achieved a better level of effectiveness, attention, and recall with less concentration. Concerning the functions, the more important and complex a function is, the more a human voice is preferred over an artificial one.

Identifying characteristic prosodic patterns through the analysis of the information of Sp_ToBI label sequences

Novel methodology for comparing the style of different speakers or group of speakers.Sequences of automatic Sp_ToBI labels allow the characterization of speaking style.Distance metrics based on conditional entropy permit to obtain information about the characteristic style patterns.The characteristic patterns identified allow informants to discriminate the speaking style in perception tests.The methodology gives information of how speakers organize their discourse with a communicative intention. This paper presents a novel methodology to characterize the style of different speakers or groups of speakers. This methodology uses sequences of prosodic labels (automatic Sp_ToBI labels) to compare and differentiate these speaking styles. A set of metrics based on conditional entropy is used to compute the distance between two speakers or group of speakers depending on the use of sequences of prosodic labels. Additionally, the most contrastive sequences of labels are identified as characteristic patterns of the speaking styles represented in a given corpus. When this methodology is applied to a corpus of radio news items, the result is that the most frequent prosodic patterns coincide with those previously characterized in studies about radio style. Finally, a perceptual test verifies that the participants attribute these characteristic patterns to the radio news style.

The Spark Orientation Effect for Improving Attention and Recall

Although some sound elements such as music or sound effects are commonly used in audiovisual messages, little research has been conducted to determine whether they guarantee better cognitive processing. The purpose of this study is to improve listeners’ cognitive processing by determining the effectiveness of several sound elements in an audio message. We analyzed the capacity and the position in radio commercials of three orienting elements—appeals to the listener, music, and sound effects—to determine if and how they enhanced the listener’s attention and recall. The findings indicated that the use of orienting elements significantly increased the level of attention and recall of the listeners, especially in the case of sound effects. Regarding the position of the orienting elements, the study showed they were used effectively when focused on the whole structure of the message, applying the so-called spark orientation effect.