Marc D Pell
Biographic Data
| ID | 177363 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marc D Pell |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marc D |
| FAMILY NAME | Pell |
| SIGNATURE | PELL M D |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9947-1552 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 15 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Social perception of English irony
Irony plays an important role in social communication, but its perceived politeness and appropriateness can vary across linguistic backgrounds. This study investigated how first-language (L1) English speakers and advanced second-language (L2) English speakers (Chinese L1) evaluate ironic (sarcastic, teasing) versus literal statements in audio-visual conversations. Participants watched videos and rated them on politeness, appropriateness, and thei…
Comparing the roles of f0, speech rate, and timbre in expressing and perceiving politeness in Mandarin speech
Previous research on vocal politeness has primarily focused on the acoustic correlates of polite expression and has yielded divergent findings, leaving unclear how multiple acoustic cues contribute to politeness perception. To address this gap, we conducted both speech production and perception experiments. In the production experiment, multivariate analyses showed that polite and rude utterances conveying identical linguistic content could be re…
The sound of complaints
Complaining is a social act in which a speaker often verbally conveys feelings of suffering to gain empathy from listeners. The present study investigated the acoustic profile of complaints to identify which prosodic features are used in this context and to explore differences in their cultural expression in two variants of French. A stimulus set composed of 336 complaints and 336 prosodically neutral utterances produced by two cultural groups, F…
The Sound of Emotional Prosody
Emotional voices attract considerable attention. A search on any browser using “emotional prosody” as a key phrase leads to more than a million entries. Such interest is evident in the scientific literature as well; readers are reminded in the introductory paragraphs of countless articles of the great importance of prosody and that listeners easily infer the emotional state of speakers through acoustic information. However, despite decades of res…
Perceiving female physical attractiveness and expressive traits from body features and body motion
The perception of female physical attractiveness is known to be predicted by body features(e.g. BMI). However, the role of body motion (e.g. postures) and the relative contribution of each type of cues are unclear. Little research reported how body cues modulate the perception of female expressive traits (e.g. warmth). We photographed and filmed 15 female posers and recorded their anthropometric data. In picture stimuli, each poser adopted neutra…
Complain like you mean it! How prosody conveys suffering even about innocuous events
Unattended Emotional Prosody Affects Visual Processing of Facial Expressions in Mandarin-Speaking Chinese
Emotional cues from different modalities have to be integrated during communication, a process that can be shaped by an individual’s cultural background. We explored this issue in 25 Chinese participants by examining how listening to emotional prosody in Mandarin influenced participants’ gazes at emotional faces in a modified visual search task. We also conducted a cross-cultural comparison between data of this study and that of our previous work…
Irony, Prosody, and Social Impressions of Affective Stance
In spoken discourse, understanding irony requires the apprehension of subtle cues, such as the speaker’s tone of voice (prosody), which often reveal the speaker’s affective stance toward the listener in the context of the utterance. To shed light on the interplay of linguistic content and prosody on impressions of spoken criticisms and compliments (both literal and ironic), 40 participants rated the friendliness of the speaker in three separate c…
Factors in the perception of speaker politeness
Although linguistic politeness has been studied and theorized about extensively, the role of prosody in the perception of (im)polite attitudes has been somewhat neglected. In the present study, we used experimental methods to investigate the interaction of linguistic form, imposition, and prosody in the perception of (im)polite requests. A written task established a baseline for the level of politeness associated with certain linguistic structure…
The sound of (in)sincerity
Recognizing sarcasm without language
The goal of the present research was to determine whether certain speaker intentions conveyed through prosody in an unfamiliar language can be accurately recognized. English and Cantonese utterances expressing sarcasm, sincerity, humorous irony, or neutrality through prosody were presented to English and Cantonese listeners unfamiliar with the other language. Listeners identified the communicative intent of utterances in both languages in a cross…
Factors in the recognition of vocally expressed emotions
The sound of sarcasm
How Parkinson's Disease Affects Non‐verbal Communication and Language Processing
In addition to difficulties that affect movement, many adults with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience changes that negatively impact on receptive aspects of their communication. For example, some PD patients have difficulties processing non‐verbal expressions (facial expressions, voice tone) and many are less sensitive to ‘non‐literal’ or pragmatic meanings of language, at least under certain conditions. This chapter outlines how PD can affect t…
The Ability of Right- and Left-Hemisphere-Damaged Individuals to Produce and Interpret Prosodic Cues Marking Phrasal Boundaries
Two experiments were conducted with the purpose of investigating the ability of right- and left-hemisphere-damaged individuals to produce and perceive the acoustic correlates to phrase boundaries. In the production experiment, the utterance pink and black and green was elicited in three different conditions corresponding to different arrangements of colored squares. Acoustic analyses revealed that both left- and right-hemisphere-damaged patients …
Factors in the recognition of vocally expressed emotions
The sound of (in)sincerity
Factors in the perception of speaker politeness
Although linguistic politeness has been studied and theorized about extensively, the role of prosody in the perception of (im)polite attitudes has been somewhat neglected. In the present study, we used experimental methods to investigate the interaction of linguistic form, imposition, and prosody in the perception of (im)polite requests. A written task established a baseline for the level of politeness associated with certain linguistic structure…
Irony, Prosody, and Social Impressions of Affective Stance
In spoken discourse, understanding irony requires the apprehension of subtle cues, such as the speaker’s tone of voice (prosody), which often reveal the speaker’s affective stance toward the listener in the context of the utterance. To shed light on the interplay of linguistic content and prosody on impressions of spoken criticisms and compliments (both literal and ironic), 40 participants rated the friendliness of the speaker in three separate c…
The Ability of Right- and Left-Hemisphere-Damaged Individuals to Produce and Interpret Prosodic Cues Marking Phrasal Boundaries
Two experiments were conducted with the purpose of investigating the ability of right- and left-hemisphere-damaged individuals to produce and perceive the acoustic correlates to phrase boundaries. In the production experiment, the utterance pink and black and green was elicited in three different conditions corresponding to different arrangements of colored squares. Acoustic analyses revealed that both left- and right-hemisphere-damaged patients …
The Ability of Right- and Left-Hemisphere-Damaged Individuals to Produce and Interpret Prosodic Cues Marking Phrasal Boundaries
Two experiments were conducted with the purpose of investigating the ability of right- and left-hemisphere-damaged individuals to produce and perceive the acoustic correlates to phrase boundaries. In the production experiment, the utterance pink and black and green was elicited in three different conditions corresponding to different arrangements of colored squares. Acoustic analyses revealed that both left- and right-hemisphere-damaged patients …
The sound of sarcasm
How Parkinson's Disease Affects Non‐verbal Communication and Language Processing
In addition to difficulties that affect movement, many adults with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience changes that negatively impact on receptive aspects of their communication. For example, some PD patients have difficulties processing non‐verbal expressions (facial expressions, voice tone) and many are less sensitive to ‘non‐literal’ or pragmatic meanings of language, at least under certain conditions. This chapter outlines how PD can affect t…
Factors in the recognition of vocally expressed emotions
Recognizing sarcasm without language
The goal of the present research was to determine whether certain speaker intentions conveyed through prosody in an unfamiliar language can be accurately recognized. English and Cantonese utterances expressing sarcasm, sincerity, humorous irony, or neutrality through prosody were presented to English and Cantonese listeners unfamiliar with the other language. Listeners identified the communicative intent of utterances in both languages in a cross…
The sound of (in)sincerity
Factors in the perception of speaker politeness
Although linguistic politeness has been studied and theorized about extensively, the role of prosody in the perception of (im)polite attitudes has been somewhat neglected. In the present study, we used experimental methods to investigate the interaction of linguistic form, imposition, and prosody in the perception of (im)polite requests. A written task established a baseline for the level of politeness associated with certain linguistic structure…
Irony, Prosody, and Social Impressions of Affective Stance
In spoken discourse, understanding irony requires the apprehension of subtle cues, such as the speaker’s tone of voice (prosody), which often reveal the speaker’s affective stance toward the listener in the context of the utterance. To shed light on the interplay of linguistic content and prosody on impressions of spoken criticisms and compliments (both literal and ironic), 40 participants rated the friendliness of the speaker in three separate c…
Unattended Emotional Prosody Affects Visual Processing of Facial Expressions in Mandarin-Speaking Chinese
Emotional cues from different modalities have to be integrated during communication, a process that can be shaped by an individual’s cultural background. We explored this issue in 25 Chinese participants by examining how listening to emotional prosody in Mandarin influenced participants’ gazes at emotional faces in a modified visual search task. We also conducted a cross-cultural comparison between data of this study and that of our previous work…
Complain like you mean it! How prosody conveys suffering even about innocuous events
The sound of complaints
Complaining is a social act in which a speaker often verbally conveys feelings of suffering to gain empathy from listeners. The present study investigated the acoustic profile of complaints to identify which prosodic features are used in this context and to explore differences in their cultural expression in two variants of French. A stimulus set composed of 336 complaints and 336 prosodically neutral utterances produced by two cultural groups, F…
The Sound of Emotional Prosody
Emotional voices attract considerable attention. A search on any browser using “emotional prosody” as a key phrase leads to more than a million entries. Such interest is evident in the scientific literature as well; readers are reminded in the introductory paragraphs of countless articles of the great importance of prosody and that listeners easily infer the emotional state of speakers through acoustic information. However, despite decades of res…
Perceiving female physical attractiveness and expressive traits from body features and body motion
The perception of female physical attractiveness is known to be predicted by body features(e.g. BMI). However, the role of body motion (e.g. postures) and the relative contribution of each type of cues are unclear. Little research reported how body cues modulate the perception of female expressive traits (e.g. warmth). We photographed and filmed 15 female posers and recorded their anthropometric data. In picture stimuli, each poser adopted neutra…
Social perception of English irony
Irony plays an important role in social communication, but its perceived politeness and appropriateness can vary across linguistic backgrounds. This study investigated how first-language (L1) English speakers and advanced second-language (L2) English speakers (Chinese L1) evaluate ironic (sarcastic, teasing) versus literal statements in audio-visual conversations. Participants watched videos and rated them on politeness, appropriateness, and thei…
Comparing the roles of f0, speech rate, and timbre in expressing and perceiving politeness in Mandarin speech
Previous research on vocal politeness has primarily focused on the acoustic correlates of polite expression and has yielded divergent findings, leaving unclear how multiple acoustic cues contribute to politeness perception. To address this gap, we conducted both speech production and perception experiments. In the production experiment, multivariate analyses showed that polite and rude utterances conveying identical linguistic content could be re…
Linguistics (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Perception (9 works) · Cognitive psychology (7 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (7 works) · Prosody (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Communication (6 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (6 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (5 works)