Talker differences in perceived emotion (Young et al., 2025)

Purpose: Previous work has shown that judgments of emotion differ between clear and conversational speech, particularly for perceived anger. The current study examines talker differences in perceived emotion for a database of talkers producing clear and conversational speech.

Method: A database of 41 talkers was used to assess talker differences in six emotion categories (“Anger,” “Fear,” “Disgust,” “Happiness,” “Sadness,” and “Neutral”). Twenty-six healthy young adult listeners rated perceived emotion in 14 emotionally neutral sentences produced in clear and conversational styles by all talkers in the database. Generalized linear mixed-effects modeling was utilized to examine talker differences in all six emotion categories.

Results: There was a significant effect of speaking style for all emotion categories, and substantial talker differences existed after controlling for speaking style in all categories. Additionally, many emotion categories, including anger, had significant Talker × Style interactions. Perceived anger was significantly higher in clear speech compared to conversational speech for 85% of the talkers.

Conclusions: While there is a large speaking style effect for perceived anger, the magnitude of the effect varies between talkers. The perception of negatively valenced emotions in clear speech, including anger, may result in unintended interpersonal consequences for those utilizing clear speech as a communication facilitator. Further research is needed to examine potential acoustic sources of perceived anger in clear speech.

Supplemental Material S1. Average perceived emotion ratings (%) by talker and speaking style for each of the following emotions: disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral.

Supplemental Material S2. Talker differences in perceived disgust in clear and conversational speech.

Supplemental Material S3. Talker differences in perceived fear in clear and conversational speech.

Supplemental Material S4. Talker differences in perceived happiness in clear and conversational speech.

Supplemental Material S5. Talker differences in perceived sadness in clear and conversational speech.

Supplemental Material S6. Talker differences in perceived neutrality in clear and conversational speech.

Young, E. D., Morgan, S. D., & Ferguson, S. H. (2025). Talker differences in perceived emotion in clear and conversational speech. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(3), 1263–1276. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_JSLHR-24-00325