Skip to main content

Jo-Anne Bachorowski

Associate Professor of Psychology

Bachorowski's research is broadly concerned with vocal communication. Specific areas of interest include laughter, vocal expression of emotion, and indexical (personal) cues in speech. The research is anchored by two core themes: understanding the linkages between vocal acoustics and emotion-related responding, and developing an empirically based approach to vocal signaling that is defensible from principles associated with the selfish-gene theory of evolution. Research strategies involve acoustic analysis, perceptual testing, and neuroimaging. Psychopathology interests include both depression and autism.

Representative Publications

  • Owren, M. J., & Bachorowski, J.-A. (forthcoming). Measuring vocal acoustics. In J. A. Coan & J. J. B. Allen (Eds.), The Handbook of Emotion Elicitation and Assessment. New York: Oxford University.
  • Bachorowski, J.-A., & Owren, M.J. (2003). Sounds of emotion: The production and perception of affect-related vocal acoustics. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1000, 244-265. P. Ekman, J. J. Campos, R. J. Davidson, & F. B. M. de Waal (Eds)., Emotions Inside out: 130 Years after Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. www.annalsnyas.org
  • Russell, J. A., Bachorowski, J.-A., & Fernandez-Dols, J.-M. (2003). Facial and vocal expressions of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 329-349.
  • Smoski, M.J., & Bachorowski, J.-A. (2003). Antiphonal laughter between friends and strangers. Cognition & Emotion, 17, 327-340.
  • Bachorowski, J.-A, & Owren, M.J. (2002). The role of vocal acoustics in emotional intelligence. L. F. Barrett and P. Salovey (Eds.), The wisdom of feelings: Processes underlying emotional intelligence (pp. 11-36). New York: Guilford.
  • Kaplan, P.S., Bachorowski, J.-A., Smoski, M.J., & Hudenko, W.J. (2002). Infants of depressed mothers, although competent learners, fail to learn in response to their own mother's infant-directed speech. Psychological Science, 13, 268-271.
  • Bachorowski, J.-A., & Owren, M.J. (2001). Not all laughs are alike: Voiced but not unvoiced laughter readily elicits positive affect. Psychological Science, 12, 252-257.
  • Bachorowski, J.-A., Smoski, M.J., & Owren, M.J. (2001). The acoustic features of human laughter. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 110, 1581-1597.