Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland; University of Lyon/Saint-Etienne, France.
Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Poland.
Perception. 2021 Jan;50(1):80-87. doi: 10.1177/0301006620978378. Epub 2020 Dec 10.
Despite recent evidence of a positive relationship between cortisol levels and voice pitch in stressed speakers, the extent to which human listeners can reliably judge stress from the voice remains unknown. Here, we tested whether voice-based judgments of stress co-vary with the free cortisol levels and vocal parameters of speakers recorded in a real-life stressful situation (oral examination) and baseline (2 weeks prior). Hormone and acoustic analyses indicated elevated salivary cortisol levels and corresponding changes in voice pitch, vocal tract resonances (formants), and speed of speech during stress. In turn, listeners' stress ratings correlated significantly with speakers' cortisol levels. Higher pitched voices were consistently perceived as more stressed; however, the influence of formant frequencies, vocal perturbation and noise parameters on stress ratings varied across contexts, suggesting that listeners utilize different strategies when assessing calm versus stressed speech. These results indicate that nonverbal vocal cues can convey honest information about a speaker's underlying physiological level of stress that listeners can, to some extent, detect and utilize, while underscoring the necessity to control for individual differences in the biological stress response.
尽管最近有证据表明皮质醇水平与紧张说话者的音高之间存在正相关关系，但人类听众从声音中可靠判断压力的程度仍不清楚。在这里，我们测试了在现实生活中的压力情境（口腔检查）和基线（2 周前）下，基于声音的压力判断是否与说话者的游离皮质醇水平和声音参数相关。激素和声学分析表明，在压力下唾液皮质醇水平升高，相应地改变了音高、声道共振（共振峰）和说话速度。反过来，听众的压力评分与说话者的皮质醇水平显著相关。更高的音高被一致认为更有压力；然而，共振峰频率、声音扰动和噪声参数对压力评分的影响因语境而异，这表明听众在评估平静与紧张的语音时会采用不同的策略。这些结果表明，非言语的声音线索可以传达说话者潜在生理压力水平的诚实信息，听众在某种程度上可以感知和利用这些信息，同时强调控制生物应激反应个体差异的必要性。
