A sound effect: Exploration of the distinctiveness advantage in voice recognition.

Sarah V Stevenage,Abi Humphreys,Beth Parsons,Greg J Neil

doi:10.1002/acp.3424

Abstract

SummaryTwo experiments are presented, which explore the presence of a distinctiveness advantage when recognising unfamiliar voices. In Experiment 1, distinctive voices were recognised significantly better, and with greater confidence, in a sequential same/different matching task compared with typical voices. These effects were replicated and extended in Experiment 2, as distinctive voices were recognised better even under challenging listening conditions imposed by nonsense sentences and temporal reversal. Taken together, the results aligned well with similar results when processing faces, and provided a useful point of comparison between voice and face processing.

Highlights

The capacity to recognise someone from their face is relatively well-researched in terms of theoretical, behavioural and neuropsychological findings
The present paper draws on this approach with specific focus on the parallel effects of distinctiveness in the face recognition and voice recognition literatures
Early consideration suggested that voice recognition was substantially weaker than face recognition

Summary

Introduction

The capacity to recognise someone from their face is relatively well-researched in terms of theoretical, behavioural and neuropsychological findings (see Schweinberger & Burton’s special issue, 2011). One possible explanation for the relative weakness of voices compared to faces, both when recognising celebrities and when retrieving information about them, is that participants may have experienced greater exposure to faces than voices given the popularity of media images. To test this account, Brédart and colleagues examined performance with personally familiar stimuli (which were likely to be heard as often as seen) and newly learned stimuli (for which face and voice exposure could be carefully controlled). Voice recognition was significantly and negatively affected by the introduction of distractor voices suggesting, once again, that voice recognition was weaker, and more susceptible to factors that affected performance, compared to face recognition

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Conclusion