Algorithmic voice transformations reveal the phonological basis of language-familiarity effects in cross-cultural emotion judgments

Nakai, T., Rachman, L., Arias Sarah, P., Okanoya, K. and Aucouturier, J.-J. (2023) Algorithmic voice transformations reveal the phonological basis of language-familiarity effects in cross-cultural emotion judgments. PLoS ONE, 18(5), e0285028. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285028) (PMID:37134091) (PMCID:PMC10156011)

Abstract

People have a well-described advantage in identifying individuals and emotions in their own culture, a phenomenon also known as the other-race and language-familiarity effect. However, it is unclear whether native-language advantages arise from genuinely enhanced capacities to extract relevant cues in familiar speech or, more simply, from cultural differences in emotional expressions. Here, to rule out production differences, we use algorithmic voice transformations to create French and Japanese stimulus pairs that differed by exactly the same acoustical characteristics. In two cross-cultural experiments, participants performed better in their native language when categorizing vocal emotional cues and detecting non-emotional pitch changes. This advantage persisted over three types of stimulus degradation (jabberwocky, shuffled and reversed sentences), which disturbed semantics, syntax, and supra-segmental patterns, respectively. These results provide evidence that production differences are not the sole drivers of the language-familiarity effect in cross-cultural emotion perception. Listeners’ unfamiliarity with the phonology of another language, rather than with its syntax or semantics, impairs the detection of pitch prosodic cues and, in turn, the recognition of expressive prosody.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by ERC Grant StG 335536 CREAM, Fondation pour l'Audition FPA RD-2018-2, ANR REFLETS and SEPIA to J.J.A., JSPS KAKENHI (20H05023 and 20K07718) and H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (101023033) to T.N., JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (#4903; Evolinguistics) to K.O.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Arias, Dr Pablo

Creator Roles

Arias Sarah, P.: Data curation, Methodology

• Authors: Nakai, T., Rachman, L., Arias Sarah, P., Okanoya, K., and Aucouturier, J.-J.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: PLoS ONE
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• ISSN (Online): 1932-6203
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Nakai et al.
• First Published: First published in PLos ONE 18(5): e0285028
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License
• Data DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/4PY25