N.A.Almayev
Institute of Psychology Russian Academy of Sciences
Russia,
129366, Moscow 129366,
Str.Yaroslavskaya 13.
Òåë.: (095) 283-53-10; Ôàêñ: (095) 958- 96-67
E-mail: almaev@psychol.ras.ru
The psychological
model of subjective meaning acquisition of an acoustic fragment is presented in
this article. The old term of psychic energy is defined anew as the information
resource. Two additional dimensions of subjective meaning are postulated:
demand for psychic energy and the level of energy available. Their connection
with traditionally distinguished emotional states is considered.The mechanism
of connection between the two aforementioned functions and highness-temporal
parameters of the sound is proposed.
Considerable growth of the interest in detection of emotion in speech on the base of frequency and temporal parameters could be admitted in the past few years [1]. As a rule, scientists try to detect specific emotions, most often so called basic emotions like: anger, fear, joy, disgust and search for the patterns of acoustic parameters that could reliably discriminate one basic emotion from the other and from the neutral expression.
In general, in contemporary
psychology there are two paradigms of description of various psychic phenomena.
They could be called a typological and dimensional one. Speaking more specific
about the description of emotional states, by the typological approach we face
the necessity to map the multidimensional space of the sound characteristic
onto very few discrete basic emotions the names of which are at the same time
considerably determined by specific culture. Such an approach is undoubtedly
rather restricted in its ability of identification of the tendencies to this or that state being expressed in speech.
Moreover, isolated considering of emotions impoverish the possibility of links
with some other characteristics like temperament, some personal traits and even
some kinds of the cognitive activity those are easily detected by the humans.
Dimensional approach most often is represented by the dimensions like:
intensity, pleasure, and control [2] those stem to the works of Osgood et al.
[3].
In any case the scientists proceed from the emotion and find its
correlates in acoustic parameters.
On the contrary, in our works ([4]Almayev, 2000, [5]Almayev, in press) it was proposed to consider the
meaning of sound as it is. To say it in another words, we tried to answer the
question of how it can be that sound may have some meaning at all? The
next immediate question is how should we describe such meaning that evidently
can not coincide with this or that word of a natural language. What is the
psychological mechanism of ascribing meaning to a sound?
The task of our approach is, therefore, to enable the possibility of
mapping of the continuum of acoustic events characteristics into the isomorphic
continuum of the subjective meanings characteristics instead of existing
mapping into discrete loci of the
separate emotions.
Here we face the problem that was discussed in several of our works and that is not sufficiently realized in the contemporary psychology and philosophy ([6]Almayev, 1999, [4] Almayev, 2000, [5] Almayev, in press). The problem is that we possess no means for fixation of subjective meaning except the words of a natural language. At the same time the natural language words are often fit very bad for this purpose.
For the solution of the problem of meaning fixation
without being ultimately bond to the natural language we have proposed to turn
to the entities of meaning those are of a finer grain then the words. In this
attempt we’ve followed E. Husserl’s (1859-1938) teaching about intentions
with its main idea that the meaning of a word is being constituted out of
intentions – those he understood as directedness of consciousness towards any
content whatever. In more general sense of Husserlian teaching intentions are
that which enable the possibility of identification of any content of psyche
with itself. It is obvious that without such acts of identification no
representation, no consciousness of duration, no time perspective, object or
scene, etc. could be constructed in our psyche.
In
an experimental study (please see [6]Almayev 1999 for references) we’ve
obtained data confirming that intentional structures of visual scenes and words
of natural language are common and serve as the ground for choosing appropriate
words for the description of the perceived reality. (see also Almayev 2000 –
Proceedings of ISAPL 7). Nevertheless, we’ve fond some considerable limitations
in the Husserl’s means for the description of subjective experience.
Particularly, Husserlian terms could not describe why some intentions might realize
themselves in consciousness in spite of the ego's will, whiles the other can
not do the same despite all the ego's desire. To say it in another words
Husserlian Phenomenology lacks the term for descriptive characteristic of potentiality of realization of
intentions. It impoverishes his way of Phenomenology and makes many
philosophers and psychologists to turn to another variants of the
phenomenological paradigm.
Taking
this into account we’ve proposed to bring the potentiality of intentions
fulfillment to consideration and signify it following the long tradition as the
“psychic energy”.
Energy
in the sense that is common for both physics and metaphysics – is that which
makes potential being actual. This term in respect to psychic events was used
by the great variety of authors from the fathers of Church up to psychoanalysts
and what not. More precisely by this term we understand certain information resource
that is necessary for the acts of identification those are necessary for
this or that activity. What is the neurological basis for this resource is not
discussed now.
It
should be mentioned that despite of the long popularity in the past now
“psychic energy” sounds like something not completely scientific and there is a
clear tendency to avoid it among the representatives of academic science. The
cause of such a state of affairs is seemingly in the fact that energy is not
clearly divided from the intentionality. Intentionality is characterized with
directedness while information resource for future intentions, possess as it is
no directedness, but is being reserved by intentional structures. No
intentional modification is possible without sufficient information resource.
Very often this resource is being reserved in severe competition between several
functional systems. We can easily find it in our subjective experience when we
turn from one occupation (suppose more difficult) to another suppose more
simple. More difficult requires greater resource while more simple is
experienced with the higher level of available psychic energy.
On
the contrary if we shall ascribe some intentional or appraisal characteristics
to energy like “positive” or “negative” the whole discourse immediately begins
resembling some shamanic or paranoid constructions. We think that it is useful
to divide intentional and energetic processes and to analyze them separately
while having in mind that in reality they are indissoluble. In general, any intentional structure can
have any energetic resource but in each moment of objective time each one has
its own. In our works on the psychology of music (Almayev, 2000[3], Almayev, in press [4]) we have proposed to
distinguish at least two variables of psychic energy management. These are: 1) the
demand of energy that might be characterized by both quality and quantity
of the systems being engaged into it; 2) the estimation of the level of
energy (presently available to that system(s) with which ego is presently
connected).
These
functions can have the following correspondence with the emotional states:
intensive demand for energy combined with the high level of available energy
characterizes high level of directed activity. Low demand for energy with high
level of available energy is characteristic for joy, relief, and sense of
might. Intensive energy demand while level of available energy is low states
for intensive grief, high level of anxiety while depression. Low level of
demand for energy combined with the low level of available energy is being
signified as apathy, being powerless.
Any state
of psyche might be allocated within the aforementioned dimensions. Addition of
appraisal (intentional) characteristics like pleasant-unpleasant, must be –
must be not and intentional reference to the objects may describe with the high
level of detailing not only abstract emotions but also concrete living through
processes.
Now
we have to answer the crucial question: how do physical and psychological
properties of sound may bond? How can acoustic events that are measured in Hz,
milliseconds and dB acquire subjective meaning? Unfortunately, we failed to trace any specific theory in
psychology of music and speech concerning the mechanism through which it can
take place. Most of the psychologists of music (see Lavy 2000 [7]) agree that
music can conduct emotion through its ability of inducing tensions and
relieves. Nevertheless how does tensions and relieves are induced is not
considered in psychological details [7]. We suppose that the connection between
physical and psychological characteristics of the sound is mediated
through the mechanism of resonance. Sounds may possess subjective meaning
stemming from the association with the parts of body to which they are “tuned
in” through resonance.
Taking
into consideration that acoustic events consist most often of the waves of many
frequencies this statement refers first of all to those frequencies that have
the greatest volume.
Further,
we proceed from the following basic assumptions.
We
can easily observe that the lower sounds resonate with the chest or even the
stomach, while the higher with the throat and this or another section of the
cranium. Throughout all of the
Indo-European tradition beginning from the Vedas the chest (heart) is
associated with the will and passions, while the stomach with drives or desires
(unconscious and relatively more abound in energy), and the head—together with
some sapient, controlling division—with reason or the mind (conscious but very
often lacking energy).
Every
content, in order for it to continue being active in the psyche, needs a
certain amount of energy. This is precisely why we can consider every sound as
demanding a certain amount of energy just for being perceived. Later this
demand is expected and is being compared with the next event which can be the
next sound as well as the pause or continuation of the previous sound.
Although, many philosophers (Husserl, Myer, Levi-Stross) admitted the last
principle in respect to the «sound» we specified what namely is expected and
compared for the constitution of subjective meaning.
While the higher tones appeal to the more controlling divisions of
psyche the rising of the tune
corresponds to the ego's more intensive demand for energy, while its
falling to the ego's energy demand of reduced intensity. The next equally important
characteristic of a sound is its duration. According to Husserl’s teaching on
inner temporality [8] sound is subjected to subsequent modifications within a
very short period of time (less then 1 sec., according to some of our
observations). Correspondingly, even a little change in duration of this or
that frequency in acoustic event may affect on the emotional meaning of the
whole. The next following is the role
of tempo: higher is the tempo the more frequent is the demand for energy
which most often leads to the increase of its level (independently on what
levels of psyche - more controlling or more instinctive are demanding). It is
not surprising, therefore, that tragic music is most often is written in a low
tempo and cease to be perceived as those while being played with considerable
increase of velocity.
Depending
on duration and highness of the main tone changes the meaning of two essential
possibilities of the development of the acoustic event: namely going of the
tune down or up. Going down may be perceived as the relief i.e. signifies that
the controlling instances experience surplus of energy and don’t need it more,
or on the contrary it may signify that the energy whiles being necessary is not
available for them. The last case presupposes longer pause or shorter duration
of the higher tone, greater interval between higher and lower tone, and in
general the context of slower tempo.
The
going of tone up also may acquire different meaning depending on the frequency
of the first tone the time till the beginning of the next tone and, to some
extent, the highness of the second tone. Relatively quicker rise produces the
feeling of sufficient amount of energy available for the ego, more slower one
begins to express tension i.e. such a state when relatively more intensive
search for the energy leads to relatively humble results.
Exact
identification of the temporal parameters that are crucial for the senses of 1)
surplus or 2) lack of energy and 3) necessity to intensify demand for it or 4)
the absence of such necessity may facilitate the solution of the task of
identification of the psychic states being conducted through the intonations of
speech and music. The overall impression of music or intonations of speech is
based on the quantitative ratio of the 4 aforementioned senses and the
character of their distribution in the whole of an audile fragment
We
should also take into consideration the context of the highness of pitches and
perhaps such parameter as their “stability” or “instability” that also may have
some parallel in the sounds of speech. The quality of stability reflects the
measure of matching of intentions and their fulfillment in representation. The
sense of stability is greater the more intentions have found their fulfillment,
whereas, instability is the sense of non-sufficient fulfillment of intentions.
Taking
above into consideration we may say, that less stable is the pitch more psychic
energy it is demanding, whereas, the stable pitches are more likely to produce
the sense that they share energy.
The
new approach to description of subjective meaning of audile fragments permits
interpretation of arbitrary audile material and scaling it with any scales of
subjective meaning whatever (For description of empirical study Almayev, 2000
see [3]). What could be of great value here is automatic registration and
obtaining of statistical data concerning the features of audile fragment like
numbers and duration of rises and falls, the “velocity” of rises and falls.
Later on that data may be subjected to multiple regression analyses in order to
determine the role of this or that audile parameter in this or that verbal
characteristic. Let me express hope that the proposed model of subjective
meaning of audile fragments might be of some value for the interpretation of
empirical data.
R E F E R E N C E S
1.Proceedings of ISCA Workshop on Speech and Emotion. Belfast, United
Kingdom. 2000. http://www.qub.ac.uk./en/isca/proceedings
2.
Pereira. C. Dimensions of emotional meaning in speech
// Proceedings of
ISCA Workshop on Speech and Emotion. Belfast, United Kingdom. 2000.
3. Osgood Ch., Susi C.J., Tannenbaum P.H. The
measurement of meaning. University of Illinoice Press, Urbana, 1957.
4. Almayev N.A. “How Meaning Might Be Induced By Music.” In Proceedings
of the 6th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. 5-10
August 2000. Keele. United Kingdom. 2000.
5. Almayev N. A. “The Concept of Psychic Energy and the
Phenomenon of Music.”In Analecta Husserliana: The yearbook of phenomenological
research / Published under the authority of the World Institute for
Phenomenological research and learning . Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
(in print)
Draft version is available on-line http://www.psychol.ras.ru/strukt/ALMAEV/penult.htm
6.
Almayev N.A. “Dynamic Theory of Meaning. New Opporunities for Cognitive
Modeling.” Web-Journal of Formal
Computational and Cognitive Linguistics (FCCL) (1999). http://fccl.ksu.ru/winter.99/cog_model/proceedings.htm
7.
Lavy Math. M. Emotion and the Experience of listening to music. (2000) http://www.mupsych.org/~mml1000/srpmme-paper.pdf
8.
Husserl E. : On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time
(1893-1917) HUSSERLIANA:
EDMUND HUSSERL Collected Works. volume4. Kluwer Academic Publishers,
Dordrecht.1991.