1
|
Lavan N, Sutherland CAM. Idiosyncratic and shared contributions shape impressions from voices and faces. Cognition 2024; 251:105881. [PMID: 39029363 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2024] [Revised: 07/06/2024] [Accepted: 07/07/2024] [Indexed: 07/21/2024]
Abstract
Voices elicit rich first impressions of what the person we are hearing might be like. Research stresses that these impressions from voices are shared across different listeners, such that people on average agree which voices sound trustworthy or old and which do not. However, can impressions from voices also be shaped by the 'ear of the beholder'? We investigated whether - and how - listeners' idiosyncratic, personal preferences contribute to first impressions from voices. In two studies (993 participants, 156 voices), we find evidence for substantial idiosyncratic contributions to voice impressions using a variance portioning approach. Overall, idiosyncratic contributions were as important as shared contributions to impressions from voices for inferred person characteristics (e.g., trustworthiness, friendliness). Shared contributions were only more influential for impressions of more directly apparent person characteristics (e.g., gender, age). Both idiosyncratic and shared contributions were reduced when stimuli were limited in their (perceived) variability, suggesting that natural variation in voices is key to understanding this impression formation. When comparing voice impressions to face impressions, we found that idiosyncratic and shared contributions to impressions similarly across modality when stimulus properties are closely matched - although voice impressions were overall less consistent than face impressions. We thus reconceptualise impressions from voices as being formed not only based on shared but also idiosyncratic contributions. We use this new framing to suggest future directions of research, including understanding idiosyncratic mechanisms, development, and malleability of voice impression formation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Lavan
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom.
| | - Clare A M Sutherland
- School of Psychology, King's College, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom; School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Sorokowski P, Groyecka-Bernard A, Frackowiak T, Kobylarek A, Kupczyk P, Sorokowska A, Misiak M, Oleszkiewicz A, Bugaj K, Włodarczyk M, Pisanski K. Comparing accuracy in voice-based assessments of biological speaker traits across speech types. Sci Rep 2023; 13:22989. [PMID: 38151496 PMCID: PMC10752881 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49596-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Accepted: 12/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Nonverbal acoustic parameters of the human voice provide cues to a vocaliser's sex, age, and body size that are relevant in human social and sexual communication, and also increasingly so for computer-based voice recognition and synthesis technologies. While studies have shown some capacity in human listeners to gauge these biological traits from unseen speakers, it remains unknown whether speech complexity improves accuracy. Here, in over 200 vocalisers and 1500 listeners of both sexes, we test whether voice-based assessments of sex, age, height and weight vary from isolated vowels and words, to sequences of vowels and words, to full sentences or paragraphs. We show that while listeners judge sex and especially age more accurately as speech complexity increases, accuracy remains high across speech types, even for a single vowel sound. In contrast, the actual heights and weights of vocalisers explain comparatively less variance in listener's assessments of body size, which do not vary systematically by speech type. Our results thus show that while more complex speech can improve listeners' biological assessments, the gain is ecologically small, as listeners already show an impressive capacity to gauge speaker traits from extremely short bouts of standardised speech, likely owing to within-speaker stability in underlying nonverbal vocal parameters such as voice pitch. We discuss the methodological, technological, and social implications of these results.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Piotr Sorokowski
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
| | | | | | | | - Piotr Kupczyk
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
| | | | - Michał Misiak
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
- Being Human Lab, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
| | - Anna Oleszkiewicz
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
- Interdisciplinary Center Smell & Taste, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Katarzyna Bugaj
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
| | | | - Katarzyna Pisanski
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland.
- Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, CNRS/Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique, Université Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
- ENES Bioacoustics Research Lab, CRNL, University of Saint-Etienne, CNRS, Saint-Etienne, Inserm, France.
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Lavan N, McGettigan C. A model for person perception from familiar and unfamiliar voices. COMMUNICATIONS PSYCHOLOGY 2023; 1:1. [PMID: 38665246 PMCID: PMC11041786 DOI: 10.1038/s44271-023-00001-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Accepted: 04/28/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
When hearing a voice, listeners can form a detailed impression of the person behind the voice. Existing models of voice processing focus primarily on one aspect of person perception - identity recognition from familiar voices - but do not account for the perception of other person characteristics (e.g., sex, age, personality traits). Here, we present a broader perspective, proposing that listeners have a common perceptual goal of perceiving who they are hearing, whether the voice is familiar or unfamiliar. We outline and discuss a model - the Person Perception from Voices (PPV) model - that achieves this goal via a common mechanism of recognising a familiar person, persona, or set of speaker characteristics. Our PPV model aims to provide a more comprehensive account of how listeners perceive the person they are listening to, using an approach that incorporates and builds on aspects of the hierarchical frameworks and prototype-based mechanisms proposed within existing models of voice identity recognition.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Lavan
- Department of Experimental and Biological Psychology, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Carolyn McGettigan
- Department of Speech, Hearing, and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Lavan N. The Time Course of Person Perception From Voices: A Behavioral Study. Psychol Sci 2023:9567976231161565. [PMID: 37227791 DOI: 10.1177/09567976231161565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Listeners spontaneously form impressions of a person from their voice: Is someone old or young? Trustworthy or untrustworthy? Some studies suggest that these impressions emerge rapidly (e.g., < 400 ms for traits), but it is unclear just how rapidly different impressions can emerge and whether the time courses differ across characteristics. I presented 618 adult listeners with voice recordings ranging from 25 ms to 800 ms in duration and asked them to rate physical (age, sex, health), trait (trustworthiness, dominance, attractiveness), and social (educatedness, poshness, professionalism) characteristics. I then used interrater agreement as an index for impression formation. Impressions of physical characteristics and dominance emerged fastest, showing high agreement after only 25 ms of exposure. In contrast, agreement for trait and social characteristics was initially low to moderate and gradually increased. Such a staggered time course suggests that there could be a temporo-perceptual hierarchy for person perception in which faster impressions could influence later ones.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nadine Lavan
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London
| |
Collapse
|