Poster C69, Wednesday, August 21, 2019, 10:45 am – 12:30 pm, Restaurant Hall
Interactions of voice identity and emotion in speech processing: the role of attention
Ana Pinheiro1, João Sarzedas1;1Faculdade de Psicologia - Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
During speech comprehension, multiple cues need to be integrated at a millisecond speed. From the perspective of a listener, it is not only important to understand “what” is being said and “how”, but also to relate that information to “who” is saying it. A processing advantage has been demonstrated for self-related stimuli when compared with non-self stimuli, and for emotional relative to neutral stimuli. However, few studies investigated how emotional valence and voice identity interactively modulate speech processing. In the present study we probed how the attentional focus demanded by the task affects the interactions of speaker’s identity and emotion during word processing. Thirty participants (15 females; Mean age = 24.30, SD = 2.51 years) listened to 210 prerecorded words differing in voice identity (self vs. other) and semantic valence (neutral, positive and negative), while electroencephalographic data were recorded. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed to decide whether words were spoken in their own voice, another voice, or whether they were unsure. In Experiment 2, they were instructed to rate the emotional quality of the words (neutral, positive or negative). The N1, P2 and Late Positive Potential (LPP) were analyzed. In both experiments, the N1 was more negative for self-generated words compared to words uttered by an unfamiliar speaker (Experiment 1: β=-1.774, SE=0.433, p<.001; Experiment 2: β=-0.822, SE=0.391, p=.036). The P2 was decreased for positive compared to neutral words uttered by an unfamiliar speaker (β=-1.822, SE=0.718, p=.011) in Experiment 1, but not in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, an increase in the LPP was observed for positive relative to neutral words irrespective of speaker’s identity (β=1.649, SE=0.591, p=.005). In Experiment 2, the LPP was reduced for positive compared to neutral words uttered by an unfamiliar speaker (β=1.647, SE=0.595, p=.005). Task (focus on voice identity or emotion) modulated the LPP amplitude only: the LPP was larger when attention was focused on the emotional quality of the words (β=2.331, SE=0.647, p<.005). ERP differences between self and other speech occurred despite similar accuracy in the recognition of both types of stimuli. Together, these findings confirm that speech and speaker information interact during spoken word processing. They further suggest that attention (focus on voice identity vs. emotion) affects how the processing of emotional words is modulated by self-relevance, particularly in later processing stages.
Themes: Speech Perception, Perception: Auditory
Method: Electrophysiology (MEG/EEG/ECOG)