Preface to the first editionNonverbal (non-verbal) communication is the most important and at the same time little-studied means of communication and mutual understanding between people. This especially concerns the non-verbal expressiveness of a person’s voice. The author of this publication is Professor V.P. Morozov, head of the Laboratory of Nonverbal Communication at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Center for Art and Science, devoted most of his scientific activities to the experimental and theoretical study of the human voice as a means of nonverbal communication and, in particular, emotional and aesthetic expressiveness. He is the author of many scientific works on the language of emotions, including a number of monographs: “Vocal hearing and voice”, “Biophysical foundations of vocal speech”, “Language of emotions, brain and computer”, “Artistic type of person”, etc. His popular science book “Entertaining Bioacoustics” received first prize at the All-Union Competition “Science and Progress” of the publishing house “Znanie” and was published in a number of countries. The media - radio, TV, print - regularly show interest in research on nonverbal communication conducted by the Laboratory of VL Morozov. The publication offered to readers is a summary of the main scientific achievements in the study of nonverbal communication obtained by the author and his collaborators over the past decade. The brochure presents the concept of the two-channel verbal-nonverbal nature of speech communication developed by the author. This is a new experimental and theoretical work in Russian psychology that explains the formation of subjective image of the speaker's objective properties. The mediator between the subject and the object is the voice as a carrier of information about the psychological characteristics of the speaker, regardless of the verbal meaning of the speech. Much in this publication is of an original, innovative nature. For example, the hierarchical scheme-classification of various types of non-verbal information developed by the author (clause 1.Z.), the concept of “human emotional hearing” (clause 3.2.), first experimentally and theoretically substantiated by V.P. Morozov and introduced by him into the scientific lexicon and everyday life, as well as “Psychological portrait of a person by his voice” (clause 3.12.), “Psychological lie detector” (clause 3.15.) and a number of others. The author is distinguished by his wide erudition in many related with psychology scientific disciplines, clarity presentation of complex scientific issues, the desire not only for their scientific and theoretical interpretation, but also for the practical use of scientific knowledge. For example, developed by V.P. Morozov’s non-verbal psychoacoustic test for emotional hearing is successfully used in the professional selection of persons in artistic professions, in particular at the Moscow Conservatory, as well as in the interests of educational and medical psychology for diagnosing the development of the emotional sphere or its disorders in a number of diseases. The research results are widely used by prof. Morozov in lecture courses on nonverbal communication for psychologists, sociologists, teachers, vocalists, phoniatricians, etc. The book can serve as a teaching aid for these categories of listeners, and is also of undoubted interest for researchers, graduate students and practical psychologists engaged in research in this relatively new theoretically and practically important interdisciplinary field of knowledge.

Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.V. Brushlinsky