CMN 122 Exam 2 Final Questions and
All Correct Answers 2026 Updated.
Functions of Paralanguage - Answer • Traffic signal/ regulating the flow of conversation
• Increase the tone, pauses- hold the floor, silent- deny the floor
• Emotional states
• Cognition: plan what to say and recall info, thinking of something complicated and increase
our uses of pause
• Speaker characteristics: attractiveness, gender, age, personalities, etc.
Behaviors of paralanguage - Answer • Vocal Qualities
• Vocalization
• Temporal characteristics
Vocalization - Answer • Stress words differently result into different meaning.
a) Ex: Light house keeper
Phonetic pause - Answer Really fast
Duration of < 250 ms (1/4 sec)
Cannot hear or detect it because it was so fast
Silent pause: - Answer Duration > 250 ms
No sound in it
Silent
Can be able to detect it
Filled pause - Answer Duration > 250ms, but has sound in it
To think about what it is to say next
Filled with sound of some kind
Can detect it
Response latency - Answer The amount of time for speaking turn between speakers
Extraversion and paralanguage - Answer short responses latency, take very few silent pauses,
tend to be a lot more fluent in their speech, tend to be very loud
,Introversion and paralanguage - Answer long responses latency, more silent pauses, slower
speech rate, lower volume
Hindenburg disaster - Answer • Studying emotional qualities of the voice (content free)
• Narrow pitch range = sad
• Wide pitch range = happy, exciting, angry
• Fast sequence= angry, happy,
• Content filter: male voice = lower tone, lower pitch, narrow
• Content filter: female voice= higher tone, higher pitch, happy
o Anger: high pitch wide pitch rage, loud, fast tempo
o Joy: high pitch, wide range, loud, fast tempo
o Sad: low pitch, wide range, soft loudness, slow tempo
Anxiety and vocal behavior - Answer • Increase non-ah speech disturbances (unfilled pauses,
hesitancies)
• Increase in speech disturbances (sentence incompletion or reconstruction, omission, stutter,
"ahs")
• Increase in response latency
• Longer gap between speaking turn
• Increase in speech rate (state anxiety)
Curvilinear effect of anxiety on performance (the Yerkes- Dodson Law) - Answer o It's good to
have some nervousness --> better communication performance with moderate amount of
nervousness
o Too low anxiety --> bored --> poor performance
o Too much anxiety --> poor performance --> uncomfortable --> forget what to say
Pitch is a behavioral marker of social anxiety disorder in men - Answer • Men (but not
women) with social anxiety disorder (SAD) spoke with higher pitch during diagnostic interviews
than controls
o The higher their pitch, the greater the anxiety symptoms
o Specific pitch value frequency to indicate someone has SAD
• There is a threshold pitch value that clearly differentiates men with and without SAD
• Gaze and pitch can function as social marker for men that have SAD
, Sex differences and paralanguage - Answer • The easiest individual difference to identify
from the voice
• Younger adult = closer in pitch
• Middle age = greatest differences in pitch
• Detecting speaker sex in preadolescents
o 26 children, age 4-14
o Judges correctly guessed their sex 81% of the time
o There was no anatomical basis, yet, for the difference in male and female voices
o Boys appear to pronounce certain vowels differently than girls
o A learned behavior?
• Speech Rate start to decrease as you get older but increase from 8th grade to 12th grade
• As you get older, using less pauses until 21 and then increase again till 41
• The faster someone speaks --> we assume they really know the subject --> give them
automatic expertise --> assume them as knowledgeable
• Speaking slow = not trust worthy, and same with speaking really fast = not trust worthy
• High pitched males were judged as less truthful, less empathic, and more nervous than low
pitched males
• --> Pitch impacts impression
Cognitive State and Vocal Behavior - Answer • Speech production (speaking non-stop) is very
cognitively demanding
• Decision making --> speech hesitation
• Reynolds & Pavio (1968)
• Describe abstract nouns versus concrete nouns
o Longer response latency, more silent pauses, and filled pauses when describe abstract term
o Cognitive load is a paralinguistic behavior = hesitation phenomenon = more hesitation greater
cognitive load
Amount of talk - Answer • Positively correlated with perceptions of
o Leadership
o Control
o Power
o Status
Most attractive voices were - Answer Loudness range
All Correct Answers 2026 Updated.
Functions of Paralanguage - Answer • Traffic signal/ regulating the flow of conversation
• Increase the tone, pauses- hold the floor, silent- deny the floor
• Emotional states
• Cognition: plan what to say and recall info, thinking of something complicated and increase
our uses of pause
• Speaker characteristics: attractiveness, gender, age, personalities, etc.
Behaviors of paralanguage - Answer • Vocal Qualities
• Vocalization
• Temporal characteristics
Vocalization - Answer • Stress words differently result into different meaning.
a) Ex: Light house keeper
Phonetic pause - Answer Really fast
Duration of < 250 ms (1/4 sec)
Cannot hear or detect it because it was so fast
Silent pause: - Answer Duration > 250 ms
No sound in it
Silent
Can be able to detect it
Filled pause - Answer Duration > 250ms, but has sound in it
To think about what it is to say next
Filled with sound of some kind
Can detect it
Response latency - Answer The amount of time for speaking turn between speakers
Extraversion and paralanguage - Answer short responses latency, take very few silent pauses,
tend to be a lot more fluent in their speech, tend to be very loud
,Introversion and paralanguage - Answer long responses latency, more silent pauses, slower
speech rate, lower volume
Hindenburg disaster - Answer • Studying emotional qualities of the voice (content free)
• Narrow pitch range = sad
• Wide pitch range = happy, exciting, angry
• Fast sequence= angry, happy,
• Content filter: male voice = lower tone, lower pitch, narrow
• Content filter: female voice= higher tone, higher pitch, happy
o Anger: high pitch wide pitch rage, loud, fast tempo
o Joy: high pitch, wide range, loud, fast tempo
o Sad: low pitch, wide range, soft loudness, slow tempo
Anxiety and vocal behavior - Answer • Increase non-ah speech disturbances (unfilled pauses,
hesitancies)
• Increase in speech disturbances (sentence incompletion or reconstruction, omission, stutter,
"ahs")
• Increase in response latency
• Longer gap between speaking turn
• Increase in speech rate (state anxiety)
Curvilinear effect of anxiety on performance (the Yerkes- Dodson Law) - Answer o It's good to
have some nervousness --> better communication performance with moderate amount of
nervousness
o Too low anxiety --> bored --> poor performance
o Too much anxiety --> poor performance --> uncomfortable --> forget what to say
Pitch is a behavioral marker of social anxiety disorder in men - Answer • Men (but not
women) with social anxiety disorder (SAD) spoke with higher pitch during diagnostic interviews
than controls
o The higher their pitch, the greater the anxiety symptoms
o Specific pitch value frequency to indicate someone has SAD
• There is a threshold pitch value that clearly differentiates men with and without SAD
• Gaze and pitch can function as social marker for men that have SAD
, Sex differences and paralanguage - Answer • The easiest individual difference to identify
from the voice
• Younger adult = closer in pitch
• Middle age = greatest differences in pitch
• Detecting speaker sex in preadolescents
o 26 children, age 4-14
o Judges correctly guessed their sex 81% of the time
o There was no anatomical basis, yet, for the difference in male and female voices
o Boys appear to pronounce certain vowels differently than girls
o A learned behavior?
• Speech Rate start to decrease as you get older but increase from 8th grade to 12th grade
• As you get older, using less pauses until 21 and then increase again till 41
• The faster someone speaks --> we assume they really know the subject --> give them
automatic expertise --> assume them as knowledgeable
• Speaking slow = not trust worthy, and same with speaking really fast = not trust worthy
• High pitched males were judged as less truthful, less empathic, and more nervous than low
pitched males
• --> Pitch impacts impression
Cognitive State and Vocal Behavior - Answer • Speech production (speaking non-stop) is very
cognitively demanding
• Decision making --> speech hesitation
• Reynolds & Pavio (1968)
• Describe abstract nouns versus concrete nouns
o Longer response latency, more silent pauses, and filled pauses when describe abstract term
o Cognitive load is a paralinguistic behavior = hesitation phenomenon = more hesitation greater
cognitive load
Amount of talk - Answer • Positively correlated with perceptions of
o Leadership
o Control
o Power
o Status
Most attractive voices were - Answer Loudness range
