Anti-voice adaptation suggests prototype-based coding of voice identity

Abstract

We used perceptual aftereffects induced by adaptation with anti-voice stimuli to investigate voice identity representations. Participants learned a set of voices then were tested on a voice identification task with vowel stimuli morphed between identities, after different conditions of adaptation. In Experiment 1, participants chose the identity opposite to the adapting anti-voice significantly more often than the other two identities (e.g., after being adapted to anti-A, they identified the average voice as A). In Experiment 2, participants showed a bias for identities opposite to the adaptor specifically for anti-voice, but not for non-anti-voice adaptors. These results are strikingly similar to adaptation aftereffects observed for facial identity. They are compatible with a representation of individual voice identities in a multidimensional perceptual voice space referenced on a voice prototype. © 2011 Latinus and Belin.