Examining vocal affect in natural versus acted expressions of emotion

V ocal Affect (V A) is one of the most significant characteristics by which human emotion is identified. During a typical face-to-face conversational exchange, a listener is able to use numerous sources of information to discern the intended meaning of the speaker including facial, gestural and vocal cues.However, some real-life situations, such as having a telephone conversation or in the case of visual deficits, force one to rely on only VA. This type of scenario was of particular interest to us. Thus, the aim of the current investigation was to examine a person’s ability to recognize emotion in a vocal message in the absence of facial and gestural cues.