Remarkably little is known about the acoustic features of laughter, despite laughter’s ubiquitous role in human vocal communication. Outcomes are described for 1024 naturally produced laugh bouts recorded from 97 young adults. Acoustic analysis focused on temporal characteristics, production modes, source‐ and filter‐related effects, and indexical cues to laugher sex and individual identity. The results indicate that laughter is a remarkably complex vocal signal, with evident diversity in both production modes and fundamental frequency characteristics. Also of interest was finding a consistent lack of articulation effects in supralaryngeal filtering. Outcomes are compared to previously advanced hypotheses and conjectures about this species‐typical vocal signal.
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May 2002
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May 01 2002
The acoustic features of human laughter
Jo‐Anne Bachorowski;
Jo‐Anne Bachorowski
Dept. of Psych., Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN 37203
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Michael J. Owren
Michael J. Owren
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY 14853
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J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 111, 2480 (2002)
Citation
Jo‐Anne Bachorowski, Michael J. Owren; The acoustic features of human laughter. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 May 2002; 111 (5_Supplement): 2480. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4778613
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