While working on a cover task, 120 female college students overheard a taped female voice from an adjoining room answer a phone and talk in an angry tone for approximately 11 sec. On a test for speaker identification, subjects listened to tape recordings of the target speaker and four female speakers used as foils, all repeating the original message. The target speaker was presented talking in the original hostile tone or talking in a more normal conversational tone. Two of the distractor voices were hostile in tone and two were conversational. Results showed that participants prepared for the recognition test were superior to uninformed subjects in identifying the target. No significant differences were found between subjects tested immediately and those tested after a delay of 24 hours. However, the change in tone of the target's voice reduced identification to chance, even for subjects tested within minutes of first hearing the speaker. In addition, a small but significant point-biserial correlation, .26, between subjects' certainty of response and accuracy of recognition was found. It is concluded that the criminal justice system should treat long-term speaker identification with caution.The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus noted that the "Eyes and ears are bad witnesses for men, since their souls lack understanding" (Donner, Eble, & Helbling, 1967, p. 65). More recently psychologists and criminal justice investigators have documented an extensive body of research indicating that eyewitness identification of faces is extremely fallible (Buckhout, 1974;Goldstein, 1977; Yarmey, 1979b). In contrast, few studies have been conducted on speaker identification (see Bull, 1978), yet testimony of voice recognition often is trusted by both law enforcement agencies and the courts (Tosi, 1979). Our article adds empirical support to the doubts raised by legal critics about this practice, by examining through laboratory simulation three factors inherent in the legal problem of speaker This research is based on a thesis submitted by the first author to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Guelph, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master's degree.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of farniliarity and changes in stimulus orientation on immediate and delayed recognition of human faces, canine faces, and buildings. Eighty Ss were assigned randomly to one of four experimental conditions: immediate or delayed recognition of stimuli presented and tested in the same orient at ion and immediate or delayed recognition of stimuli presented and tested in opposite orientations. Results indicated that farniliar stimuli presented for seven successive inspection trials were significantly better recognized than were unfamiliar stimuli inspected only once. Recognition performance declined as a function of stimulus rotation and a 20-min delay in testing. This decline was significantly greater for human faces than for other stimuli, regardless of the recall interval used. It was concJuded that increased familiarity improved recognition and that the disproportionate difficulty for rota ted human faces was independent of familiarity.

Fifty faces of "famous" persons were used as stimuli to precipitate the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) experience. Results showed that Ss in TOT states searched for target's name by locating first his profession, where he was most often seen, and how recently. Ss also had accurate knowledge of the initial letters of target names, initial letters of similar sounding names, and numbers of syllables in target names. It was concluded that TOT states for to-be-remembered names are retrieved from semantic and episodic memory systems on.the basis of verbal and imaginal encodings.

The scientific basis of speaker identification by human listeners and its generalization to the procedures and practices of the police and to the decision making of the courts have been both neglected and misunderstood relative to that of face and photo identification. An overview of the perception of speech is presented, followed by a review of forensically relevant variables in voice identification (i.e., speaker, listener, situational, and procedural variables). Finally, suggestions for the proper procedures and conduction of voice lineups are proposed.The general belief that people can accurately identify others by hearing their voice is both ancient and contemporary. One historical example, which Tosi (1979) suggested is the equivalent in modern jurisprudence to "conspiring to falsely impersonate a person with the purpose of unduly acquiring the rights of primogeniture and dispossessing an individual of his rightful inheritance" (p. 1), is found in Genesis 27: 1-22. Isaac, father of Jacob and Esau, correctly recognized the voice of Jacob but lacked confidence in his decision. Trusting his touch and wishing to believe that his favorite son Esau was present, Isaac disregarded the voice information in this 1-person lineup and misidentified Jacob.

Elderly men and women and young males and females observed a simulated assault and theft of a wallet by a male assailant on a male victim. Two other people also were present in the criminal scenario, a female friend of the victim, and a female witness bystander. Young subject-witnesses were significantly superior to the elderly in verbal recall of details of the criminal episode. However, no reliable differences were found between the two age categories in recognition of the assailant, the victim, or friend. Women were superior to men and young people were superior to the elderly in identifying the bystander. Identification of the assailant was influenced by complex interactions of guilty or innocent facial appearances of the assailant and the victim, as well as the sex and age of the witnesses.