Superiority of blind over sighted listeners in voice recognition

Abstract

The current study examined whether the blind are superior to sighted listeners in voice recognition. Three subject groups, including 17 congenitally blind, 18 late blind, and 18 sighted, showed no significant differences in the immediate voice recognition test. In the delayed test conducted two weeks later, however, both congenitally blind and late blind groups performed better than the sighted with no significant difference between the two blind groups. These results partly confirmed the anecdotal observation about the blind's superiority in voice recognition, which resides mainly in delayed memory phase but not in immediate recall and generalization phase.