NCJ Number
52642
Date Published
1974
Length
5 pages
Annotation
TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT ON LISTENERS OF HIGHLY STRESSED LEVELS OF PITCH AND VOLUME IN SPEAKER'S VOICES, RESPONSES OF 20 MALES TO WRITTEN AND RECORDED WORDS WERE ANALYZED USING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS EVALUATOR (PSE).
Abstract
THE STIMULI CONSISTED OF FIVE WRITTEN NEUTRAL WORDS FOR THE FIRST EXPERIMENT, A CASSETTE TAPE RECORDING OF THE SAME WORDS PRESENTED AT NORMAL PRONUNCIATION AND AS LOUD, HIGH OUTBURSTS OFR THE SECOND EXPERIMENT. PSE ANALYSIS SHOWED LOW STRESS IN THE NORMAL PRONUNCIATION OF THE WORDS AND HIGH STRESS IN THE LOUDER-HIGH-PITCHED PRONUNCIATION. SUBJECTS WERE REQUIRED TO RESPOND VERBALLY TO THE CRITICAL WORDS AND BUFFER WORDS AND SHORT INTERVALS WERE INTERSPERSED BETWEEN STIMULI. FINDINGS INDICATE THAT THERE IS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS IN RESPONSE TO READING THE HIGHLY STRESSED EMOTIONAL WORDS AS COMPARED TO STRESS IN RESPONSE TO THE READING OF LOW STRESS 'NEUTRAL' WORDS, AND THE IMPACT OF ANY PARTICULAR WORD ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS LEVEL OF THE READER CANNOT BE PREDICTED BY CONTENT OR THE RESPONSE ALONE. RESULTS OF THE SECOND EXPERIMENT INDICATE THAT VARIATIONS IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE SAME WORD WILL PRODUCE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS LEVEL OF THE LISTENER. THUS, PERCEIVED TONE OF VOICE AS DETERMINED BY VOLUME AND PITCH MAY RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS LEVEL, AND CONSEQUENTLY THE EMOTIONAL 'SET' OF THE LISTENER, AND MAY INFLUENCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE SPEAKER. (DAG)