Voice Production and Perception

Abstract

The voice is a prime channel of communication in humans and other animals. Voices convey many kinds of information, including physical characteristics like body size and sex, as well as providing cues to the vocalizing individual’s identity and emotional state. Vocalizations are produced by dynamic modifications of the physiological vocal production system. The source-filter theory explains how vocalizations are produced in two stages: (a) the production of a sound source in the larynx, and (b) the filtering of that sound by the vocal tract. This two-stage process largely applies to all primate vocalizations. However, there are some differences between the vocal production apparatus of humans as compared to nonhuman primates, such as the lower position of the larynx and lack of air sacs in humans. Thanks to our flexible vocal apparatus, humans can produce a range of different types of vocalizations, including spoken language, nonverbal vocalizations, whispering, and singing. A comprehensive understanding of vocal communication takes both production and perception of vocalizations into account. Internal processes are expressed in the form of specific acoustic patterns in the producer’s voice. In order to communicate information in vocalizations, those acoustic patterns must be acoustically registered by listeners via auditory perception mechanisms. Both production and perception of vocalizations are affected by psychobiological mechanisms as well as sociocultural factors. Furthermore, vocal production and perception can be impaired by a range of different disorders. Vocal production and hearing disorders, as well as mental disorders including autism spectrum disorder, depression, and schizophrenia, affect vocal communication.

Do Voice-Based Judgments of Socially Relevant Speaker Traits Differ Across Speech Types?

“…The human voice is a source of abundant information about the vocalizer, which listeners can use to make socially relevant decisions. Hundreds if not thousands of experimental studies have shown that the human voice plays a central role in predicting listeners' perceptions of the social and biological qualities of vocalizers, including psychological and physical traits (reviewed in: Aung & Puts, 2020;Kamiloğlu & Sauter, 2021;Kreiman & Sidtis, 2011;Pisanski & Bryant, 2019). For example, the nonverbal properties of a person's voice, particularly fundamental frequency (f o ) perceived as voice pitch, and formant frequencies affecting voice timbre, can predict listeners' judgments of a vocalizer's personality traits (Stern et al, 2021), social dominance (Aung & Puts, 2020;Borkowska & Pawlowski, 2011;David A.…”

“…The perceived vocalizer traits tested here were selected on the basis of countless studies that have shown that listeners' perceptions of these specific traits, while not exhaustive, are robustly influenced by nonverbal parameters of the voice, and are thus among the most intensively studied voice-based traits in the human voice sciences (for reviews see Kamiloğlu & Sauter, 2021;Kreiman & Sidtis, 2011;Pisanski & Bryant, 2019). Importantly, voice-based perceptions of these same traits are also known to predict a range of social decisions, such as mate preferences (Rosenfield et al, 2020) and election outcomes (Mileva et al, 2020).…”

“…These included traits relevant to human mate selection and to other non-sexual social contexts(Pisanski & Feinberg, 2019). All of the considered traits have been of high interest to researchers studying the evolution and social outcomes of human vocal communication for decades (for reviews of the literature see:Aung & Puts, 2020;Kamiloğlu & Sauter, 2021;Kreiman & Sidtis, 2011;Oleszkiewicz et al, 2017;Pisanski & Bryant, 2019;Pisanski & Feinberg, 2019;Stern et al, 2021).…”