scholarly journals Vocal communication across cultures: theoretical and methodological issues

2021 ◽  
Vol 377 (1841) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Speech Research ◽  
Voice Modulation ◽  
Behavioural Sciences

The study of human vocal communication has been conducted primarily in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic (WEIRD) societies. Recently, cross-cultural investigations in several domains of voice research have been expanding into more diverse populations. Theoretically, it is important to understand how universals and cultural variations interact in vocal production and perception, but cross-cultural voice research presents many methodological challenges. Experimental methods typically used in WEIRD societies are often not possible to implement in many populations such as rural, small-scale societies. Moreover, theoretical and methodological issues are often unnecessarily intertwined. Here, I focus on three areas of cross-cultural voice modulation research: (i) vocal signalling of formidability and dominance, (ii) vocal emotions, and (iii) production and perception of infant-directed speech. Research in these specific areas illustrates challenges that apply more generally across the human behavioural sciences but also reveals promise as we develop our understanding of the evolution of human communication. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

scholarly journals Vocal size exaggeration may have contributed to the origins of vocalic complexity

2021 ◽  
Vol 377 (1841) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Pisanski ◽  
Andrey Anikin ◽  
David Reby
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Vocal Tract ◽  
Similar Extent ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Articulatory Movements ◽  
Animal Vocalizations ◽  
Second Formant ◽  
Voice Modulation

Vocal tract elongation, which uniformly lowers vocal tract resonances (formant frequencies) in animal vocalizations, has evolved independently in several vertebrate groups as a means for vocalizers to exaggerate their apparent body size. Here, we propose that smaller speech-like articulatory movements that alter only individual formants can serve a similar yet less energetically costly size-exaggerating function. To test this, we examine whether uneven formant spacing alters the perceived body size of vocalizers in synthesized human vowels and animal calls. Among six synthetic vowel patterns, those characterized by the lowest first and second formant (the vowel /u/ as in ‘boot’) are consistently perceived as produced by the largest vocalizer. Crucially, lowering only one or two formants in animal-like calls also conveys the impression of a larger body size, and lowering the second and third formants simultaneously exaggerates perceived size to a similar extent as rescaling all formants. As the articulatory movements required for individual formant shifts are minor compared to full vocal tract extension, they represent a rapid and energetically efficient mechanism for acoustic size exaggeration. We suggest that, by favouring the evolution of uneven formant patterns in vocal communication, this deceptive strategy may have contributed to the origins of the phonemic diversification required for articulated speech. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

scholarly journals Voice modulatory cues to structure across languages and species

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1840) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Matzinger ◽  
W. Tecumseh Fitch
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Vocal Production ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Vocal Signals ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
Shared Ancestry ◽  
Voice Modulation

Voice modulatory cues such as variations in fundamental frequency, duration and pauses are key factors for structuring vocal signals in human speech and vocal communication in other tetrapods. Voice modulation physiology is highly similar in humans and other tetrapods due to shared ancestry and shared functional pressures for efficient communication. This has led to similarly structured vocalizations across humans and other tetrapods. Nonetheless, in their details, structural characteristics may vary across species and languages. Because data concerning voice modulation in non-human tetrapod vocal production and especially perception are relatively scarce compared to human vocal production and perception, this review focuses on voice modulatory cues used for speech segmentation across human languages, highlighting comparative data where available. Cues that are used similarly across many languages may help indicate which cues may result from physiological or basic cognitive constraints, and which cues may be employed more flexibly and are shaped by cultural evolution. This suggests promising candidates for future investigation of cues to structure in non-human tetrapod vocalizations. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)’.

scholarly journals Musicality in human vocal communication: an evolutionary perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 377 (1841) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan David Leongómez ◽  
Jan Havlíček ◽  
S. Craig Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Voice Modulation

Studies show that specific vocal modulations, akin to those of infant-directed speech (IDS) and perhaps music, play a role in communicating intentions and mental states during human social interaction. Based on this, we propose a model for the evolution of musicality—the capacity to process musical information—in relation to human vocal communication. We suggest that a complex social environment, with strong social bonds, promoted the appearance of musicality-related abilities. These social bonds were not limited to those between offspring and mothers or other carers, although these may have been especially influential in view of altriciality of human infants. The model can be further tested in other species by comparing levels of sociality and complexity of vocal communication. By integrating several theories, our model presents a radically different view of musicality, not limited to specifically musical scenarios, but one in which this capacity originally evolved to aid parent–infant communication and bonding, and even today plays a role not only in music but also in IDS, as well as in some adult-directed speech contexts. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)’.

Oppositional deliberation: Toward explaining overconfidence and its cross- cultural variations

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Frank Yates ◽  
Ju-Whei Lee ◽  
Hiromi Shinotsuka ◽  
Winston R. Siech
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variations

scholarly journals Small-scale societies exhibit fundamental variation in the role of intentions in moral judgment

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (17) ◽  
pp. 4688-4693 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Clark Barrett ◽  
Alexander Bolyanatz ◽  
Alyssa N. Crittenden ◽  
Daniel M. T. Fessler ◽  
Simon Fitzpatrick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Moral Assessment ◽  
Mitigating Circumstances

Intent and mitigating circumstances play a central role in moral and legal assessments in large-scale industrialized societies. Although these features of moral assessment are widely assumed to be universal, to date, they have only been studied in a narrow range of societies. We show that there is substantial cross-cultural variation among eight traditional small-scale societies (ranging from hunter-gatherer to pastoralist to horticulturalist) and two Western societies (one urban, one rural) in the extent to which intent and mitigating circumstances influence moral judgments. Although participants in all societies took such factors into account to some degree, they did so to very different extents, varying in both the types of considerations taken into account and the types of violations to which such considerations were applied. The particular patterns of assessment characteristic of large-scale industrialized societies may thus reflect relatively recently culturally evolved norms rather than inherent features of human moral judgment.

Methodological Issues Regarding Cross-Cultural Studies of Judgments of Facial Expressions

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Matsumoto ◽  
Hyisung C. Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Methodological Errors ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Facial Expressions Of Emotion ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Cross Cultural Studies

We discuss four methodological issues regarding cross-cultural judgment studies of facial expressions of emotion involving design, sampling, stimuli, and dependent variables. We use examples of relatively recent studies in this area to highlight and discuss these issues. We contend that careful consideration of these, and other, cross-cultural methodological issues can help researchers minimize methodological errors, and can guide the field to address new and different research questions that can continue to facilitate an evolution in the field’s thinking about the nature of culture, emotion, and facial expressions.

Show your teeth or not: The role of the mouth and eyes in smiles and its cross-cultural variations

2010 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 450-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Yue Ge ◽  
Wen-Bo Luo ◽  
Yue-Jia Luo
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variations

AbstractPrevious studies with Westerners have found that both the mouth and eyes are crucial in identifying and interpreting smiles. We proposed that Easterners (e.g., Chinese and Japanese) evaluate the role of the mouth and eyes in smiles differently from Westerners. Individuals in collectivistic Eastern society heavily rely on information from the eyes to identify and interpret the meaning of smiles.

Psychology Within and Without the State

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Clark Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The World ◽  
Psychological Similarity

Psychological research in small-scale societies is crucial for what it stands to tell us about human psychological diversity. However, people in these communities, typically Indigenous communities in the global South, have been underrepresented and sometimes misrepresented in psychological research. Here I discuss the promises and pitfalls of psychological research in these communities, reviewing why they have been of interest to social scientists and how cross-cultural comparisons have been used to test psychological hypotheses. I consider factors that may be undertheorized in our research, such as political and economic marginalization, and how these might influence our data and conclusions. I argue that more just and accurate representation of people from small-scale communities around the world will provide us with a fuller picture of human psychological similarity and diversity, and it will help us to better understand how this diversity is shaped by historical and social processes. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 73 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Respondents in Asian Cultures (e.g., Chinese) are More Risk-Seeking and More Overconfident than Respondents in Other Cultures (e.g., in United States) but the Reciprocal Predictions are in Total Opposition: How and Why?

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Li ◽  
Yongqing Fang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Risk Preferences ◽  
Risk Preference ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Risk Seeking ◽  
The Social ◽  
Predicted Risk

AbstractTriggered by rather surprising findings that respondents in Asian cultures (e.g., Chinese) are more risk-seeking and more overconfident than respondents in other cultures (e.g., in United States) and that the reciprocal predictions are in total opposition, four experiments were designed to extend previous collective-culture oriented researches. Results revealed that (1) Singapore 21, which is a vision of Singapore in the 21st century and has highlighted the promotion of a collective culture, did not advocate greater risk-seeking but led to weaker overconfidence; (2) the knowledge of "financial help from social network" did not permit prediction of risk preference but the knowledge of "the value difference between possible outcomes" did; (3) the social network could be viewed not only as a positive "cushion" but also as a negative "burden" in both gain and loss domains of risky choices; (4) the predictions of the risk-as-value, risk-as-feelings and stereotype hypotheses were not consistent with the predicted risk preferences of others but the predictions of the economic-performance hypothesis were consistent with the predicted risk preferences as well as the predicted overconfidence of others. The implications for cross-cultural variations in overconfidence and for cross-cultural variations in risk-taking were discussed.

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