Previous studies on emotional understanding from vocal cues have mainly relied on explicit methods, such as using emotion-related words or facial illustrations to identify the emotion conveyed by a voice. However, these approaches may not adequately capture the developmental characteristics of emotional understanding in early childhood. To address this limitation, implicit methods have been proposed. For example, Hiraoka et al. (2019) analyzed center-of-pressure (COP) shifts in mothers when listening to infant vocalizations and found rapid approach responses to unpleasant and urgent sounds. However, it remains unclear whether similar approach-avoidance responses occur in adults and whether COP shifts can be used to assess reactions to emotional vocal stimuli.
This study aimed to examine whether patterns of approach and avoidance responses vary depending on the type of emotion expressed in vocal stimuli. Twenty-four university students listened to four types of emotional vocalizations (joy, sadness, anger and neutral). These vocal stimuli were produced by one male and one female actor uttering “waa” with different emotions, with reference to Sawada et al. (2024).
Results showed no significant differences in approach-avoidance patterns across emotional categories. Two possible explanations are considered: (1) large individual variability in COP shifts or insufficient measurement sensitivity, and potential effects of gender differences; and (2) a possible mismatch between the intended emotions in the stimuli and participants’ perception of those emotions. Future studies should include larger samples and evaluate how the emotional content of the stimuli is actually perceived.

Authors:
Junko Yakushiji, Hosei University, Japan
Yayoi Watanabe, Hosei University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Junko Yakushiji is a doctoral student in the Psychology Graduate School of Humanities , Hosei University, Japan.

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