Identification of vocal communication of emotions across cultures

Constructed an audiotape containing 48 messages of 4 different lengths expressing happiness, fear, sadness, anger, indifference, and flirtation. Items were in English and ratings by 100 United States Ss had produced 60-80% agreement on ratings. The tape was presented twice to 52 United States, 55 Polish, and 54 Japanese students. The accuracy of the United States Ss did not increase with the increasing length of the messages, but that of the other 2 groups did until their accuracy was comparable with the United States group for the longest items. The most difficult items for the Japanese and Polish Ss were those expressing happiness and flirtation. Results indicate that the nonverbal vocal channel can be used to transmit intracultural information but not without some "noise." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).