Localization Cues Affect Emotional Judgments – Results from a User Study on Scary Sound

Ekman I, Kajastila R. Localization Cues Affect Emotional Judgments – Results from a User Study on Scary Sound. In: AES Conference: 35th International Conference: Audio for Games. Audio Engineering Society; 2009. Paper 23. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=15177

@inproceedings{Ekman2009_15177,
  author = {Ekman, Inger and Kajastila, Raine},
  title = {{Localization Cues Affect Emotional Judgments – Results from a User Study on Scary Sound}},
  booktitle = {AES Conference: 35th International Conference: Audio for Games},
  note = {Paper 23},
  year = {2009},
  month = feb,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=15177}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Localization Cues Affect Emotional Judgments – Results from a User Study on Scary Sound
AU  - Ekman, Inger
AU  - Kajastila, Raine
T2  - AES Conference: 35th International Conference: Audio for Games
M1  - Paper 23
PY  - 2009
DA  - 2009/02/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=15177
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - The current paradigm for creating emotional impact in game sound is to carefully choose which sounds to play. This paper takes an alternative approach, suggesting that emotional impact of sounds can be affected by choosing how to play those sounds. We describe a novel concept for emotional sound design - emotional fine-tuning - and show how it is possible to systematically influence the emotional impact of a single sound sample. A controlled user study with 8 subjects confirmed that changing the reproduction of a sample so that source localization of the sound is challenged will increase its perceived scariness compared to the same sound with clearly detectable source. The work extends experimental research on emotion perception in sound. It has practical implications for sound design in games and other interactive media.
ER  -