Fifty-four voices from two: the effects of simultaneous manipulations of rate, mean fundamental frequency, and variance of fundamental frequency on ratings of personality from speech

Abstract

Utterances of two adults males were analyzed and synthesized by a fast Fourier Transforms method. Each of the two voices was synthesized in each of the twenty-seven combinations of three levels each of rate, mean FO, and variance of FO (a total of fifty-four "voices" generated from two). The effects of the rate, mean FO, and variance of FO manipulations, the interactive effects of rate and variance of FO, and the effects due to speaker were all statistically significant predictors of personality ratings given the voices. They accounted for 86%, 4%, 3%, 2%, and 1% of the variance, respectively, in competence ratings and 48%, 1%, 6%, 1%, and 8% of the variance, respectively, in benevolence ratings. Increased speaking rate was found to decrease the benevolence ratings, and decreased rate was found to decrease competence ratings. Decreased variance of FO was found to decrease the ratings on both competence and benevolence. Increased mean FO in these mhle voices was also found to decrease competence and benevolence ratings.Subject Classification: 70.30.

Conversational role influences speech imitation

“…Perceived talker confidence, intelligence, and potency has been found to increase with increased speaking rate (Apple, Streeter, & Krauss, 1979;Brown, Strong, & Rencher, 1974), and the present findings could be due to an attempt on the part of givers to assert expertise or to express confidence in their role. A complete understanding of situational influences on articulation rates awaits the outcome of future investigations, but it is clear that an interlocutor's articulation rate is not automatically yoked to the rate of a speaking partner, even in a cooperative task setting with an explicit imitative goal.…”

Comment étudier l’influence des stéréotypes de genre et de race sur la perception de la parole ?

“…aux basses fréquences, tandis que les voix présentées comme voix d'hommes ont pu évoquer des attitudes associées aux fréquences élevées. Or, ces associations cognitives entre fréquences vocales et attitudes ont été largement documentées dans de nombreux travaux phonétiques (Apple et al, 1979 ;Bolinger, 1964 ;Brown, 1974 ;Fairbanks & Pronovost, 1939 ;Ohala, 1984 ;Williams & Stevens, 1972). Selon ces travaux, les fréquences basses évoqueraient par exemple l'assertivité, l'autorité, la confiance en soi ou l'agressivité, et les fréquences élevées évoqueraient par exemple la soumission, la déférence ou le manque de confiance en soi.…”

Perceptual susceptibility to acoustic manipulations in speaker discrimination

“…Other research has looked into the perceptual cues utilized for decisions on speaker gender (Lass et al, 1976;Bachorowski and Owren, 1999;Smith and Patterson, 2005;Skuk and Schweinberger, 2013), age (Hartman and Danhauer, 1976;Smith and Patterson, 2005), size (Smith and Patterson, 2005), or personality (Brown et al, 1973(Brown et al, , 1974, tasks that are potentially relevant to speaker recognition.…”