Auditory emoticons: Iterative design and acoustic characteristics of emotional auditory icons and earcons

Abstract

In recent decades there has been an increased interest in sonification research. Two commonly used sonification techniques, auditory icons and earcons, have been the subject of a lot of study. However, despite this there has been relatively little research investigating the relationship between these sonification techniques and emotions and affect. Additionally, despite their popularity, auditory icons and earcons are often treated separately and are rarely compared directly in studies. The current paper shows iterative design procedures to create emotional auditory icons and earcons. The ultimate goal of the study is to compare auditory icons and earcons in their ability to represent emotional states. The results show that there are some strong user preferences both within sonification categories and between sonfication categories. The implications and extensions of this work are discussed. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.