A Tool for Research on Emotion in Naturally Occurring Speech

 描述(申请人提供)：研究自然言语中的情绪的工具。现在人们普遍认为，情绪处理上的缺陷或限制是许多障碍的基础，如焦虑、抑郁、躁郁症和进食障碍。如果能够找到情绪的生物行为标记物，研究人员就有了研究正常精神功能和广泛精神障碍中的情绪的基础。情感在癌症和其他疾病患者体验中的作用也越来越引起研究人员的兴趣。这一第一阶段STTR项目的目的是展示开发一种研究自然言语中情绪的工具的可行性。它建立了申请者小型企业(ConverSpeech)和申请者研究机构(斯坦福大学)已经完成的工作。它将整合现有的两个原型程序：一个识别自然语言中的情感，另一个根据说话者和听者的情感分析语言。所有的分析都是为了尊重情绪处理过程中的个体差异。两年多来从个人和夫妻互动中收集的高质量视频和音频记录可用于拟议的项目。该项目有两个具体目标：具体目标1.建立一个软件工具，允许声学和语言分析相结合，用于研究自然产生的语音中的情感。具体目标2.将语音和情感的集成声学和语言分析嵌入到一个工具中，为研究人员提供灵活的选择，以进行新型的声学和语言分析。将通过使用综合原型工具复制我们最近对6名参与者进行的声学和语言研究(具有可比较的结果)，为另外4至10名参与者确定可行性。此外，至少一个新的声学特征、另一个分类模型和额外的语言分析将被纳入并测试其功能。新的语言分析将使用我们的两个情感顾问提供的50个新注释进行评估，这两个顾问都从事情感研究。他们还将按照有声思考协议对集成的扩展原型进行演练。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A Tool for Research on Emotion in Naturally Occurring Speech. It is now widely accepted that defects or limitations in emotion processing underlie many disorders such as anxiety, depression, bipolar and eating disorders. If bio-behavioral markers of emotions could be found, researchers would have the basis for investigating emotions in both normal mental functioning and in a wide range of mental disorders. The role of emotion in the experience of patients with cancer and other illnesses is also of growing interest to researchers. The aim of this Phase I STTR project is to show the feasibility of developing a tool for research on emotion in naturally occurring speech. It builds o work already done by the applicant small business (Converspeech) and the applicant research organization (Stanford University). It will integrate two existing prototype programs: one that recognizes emotions in naturally occurring speech and another that analyzes language in terms of the emotions of both speaker and listener. All analyses are designed to respect individual differences in emotion processing. High-quality video and audio recordings collected from individuals and couples in interaction over two years are available to the proposed project. The project has two Specific Aims: Specific Aim 1. Build a software tool that permits acoustic and language analysis to be integrated for the study of emotion in naturally occurring speech. Specific Aim 2. Embed integrated acoustic and language analysis of speech and emotion in a tool that offers flexible choices to the researcher for new kinds of acoustic and language analysis. Feasibility will be established by using the integrated prototype tool to reproduce our recent acoustic and language study conducted on six participants (with comparable results) for four to ten additional participants. In addition, at least one new acoustic feature, one other classification model, and additional language analysis will be incorporated and tested for functionality. New language analysis will be evaluated using 50 new annotations provided by our two emotion consultants, both of whom conduct research in emotion. They will also perform a walk-through of the integrated extended prototype following a think-aloud protocol.