Recognition and discrimination of unfamiliar male and female voices

Abstract

The aim of this study was examined the ability to identify voices of unfamiliar people. In experiment 1, participants performed tried to recognize the voice of unfamiliar man or woman. Results showed that subjects generally matched 83.11% when the target voice was present and made 56.45% false alarms when it was not. Discrimination was different from chance and subjects used liberal response criteria. In experiment 2, men and women tried to identify the same voices of men and women as in previous experiment. Between stimulus presentation and the recognition task, subjects listened instrumental music for 2.38 minutes, with the aim of making it harder that the voice remain active in working memory. Results showed that ability of men and women to identify an unfamiliar voice was null, in both cases with liberal response criterion. Men matched 12.06%, with 65.51% false alarms, and women 25.80% and 56.45% respectively. There was no differences in the ability to identify male and female voices, although women tend to choose more than men, even when no target voice was present.