Twenty college students participated in an examination of the role of auditory feedback in the encoding of paralinguistic affect by adults. A dependent measure indicating the accuracy of paralinguistic communication of affect was obtained by comparing the level of affect that encoders intended to produce with ratings of vocal intonations from adult judges. Five independent variables were manipulated: presence versus absence of auditory feedback to the encoder from his or her own voice; the literal content of the encoder's verbal message; the encoder's intended level of vocal intonation (extremely unfriendly, moderately unfriendly, neutral, moderately friendly, extremely friendly); the sex of the encoder; and the sex of the decoder. Five hypotheses were tested. The hypothesis that absence of auditory feedback would yield lower encoding accuracy than would presence of feedback was confirmed for friendly tones of voice. The hypothesis that absence of auditory feedback should yield a greater lowering of accuracy of encoding inconsistent than consistent paralanguage was also confirmed for friendly tones of voice. The hypothesis that absence of auditory feedback should yield a greater decrease of accuracy of encoding positive than negative paralinguistic inconsistency was confirmed. Contrary to prediction, females were more accurate encoders than were males (for friendly tones of voice only). The hypothesis that females should be more accurate decoders than males was confirmed (for the extremely unfriendly tones of voice only). (Author/FL)