Emotions impact memory through different modalities: The importance of examining vocal dimensions of emotion

Abstract

Having access to people’s narratives and their meaning cannot solely be detected through the verbal content of discourse. The short transcript that is analyzed highlights that important emotional dimensions can be captured when considering voice characteristics (pitch, loudness, speech rate, and resonance) together with nonverbal vocalizations (e.g. laughs) in addition to the more classical approach centered only on a verbal approach. The text analyzed is related to a woman who discovered later in her life that her father was involved in collaboration with the Nazis during WWII. The results show that most of the woman’s verbal language is descriptive. This contrasts with the vocal analysis suggesting emotional experiences evidenced by variations in pitch, loudness, and speech rate. In some instances, two vocal indicators of emotion were present simultaneously. They always involved speech rate, together with loudness, resonance, and pitch. Moments of dissociation between the verbal and the vocal dimensions of emotions are presented, suggesting that the woman still experiences strong emotions related to her past without being aware of them or without being willing to disclose them. The discussion highlights the relevance of analyzing jointly the verbal content together with the prosody and nonverbal vocalizations when examining autobiographical narratives.