The effect of accommodation on perceived vocal aesthetics

Abstract

We conducted an auditory naming task (n=20) using eight model talker voices previously rated for attractiveness and prototypicality such that the Most Attractive, Least Attractive, Most Typical, and Least Typical voice for each gender served as a model talker. Female shadowers accommodated more than males, particularly to the Most Attractive Female model. This finding led us to question if in the course of accommodation to an attractive female voice, female shadowers themselves become more vocally attractive. We then conducted an AX task where listeners judged whether shadowers' baseline or shadowed productions were more attractive. We found that female voices were generally judged to be more attractive in shadowing conditions, regardless of the qualities of the model voice. In a follow-up experiment examining typicality, the shadowers' voices were used in a reaction time experiment where listeners categorized each voice as male or female. Following Strand (1999) more typical voices are those that elicit faster reaction times. Results of this experiment suggest that shadowers' voices, especially female ones, become more prototypical when shadowing typical voices and less so when shadowing atypical ones. © 2013 Acoustical Society of America.