The aim of this study was to investigate the accuracy of listeners' estimation of physical characteristics such as body weight and body height from voice signals alone. A series of listening tasks was carried out in which 20 adult male listeners judged body weight and height from 20 adult male speakers' voice samples. Additionally, listeners' perception of the speakers' voice pitch was compared to actual voice pitch measured as fundamental frequency (F0) in Hz. The results of Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients calculations indicated that the listeners' estimation of body weight and height was in negative correlation with actual physical parameters of the speakers. In point of fact, it was shown that listeners held a certain vocal stereotype about physical characteristics where lower pitch of the voice was taken as an indicator of larger body weight and height, and vice versa.

Authors: Kovacic, Gordana; Domitrovic, Hrvoje
Affiliations: University of Amsterdam, Institute of Phonetic Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Dept. of Electroacoustics, Zagreb, Croatia(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 114 (March 2003) Paper Number: 5726
Publication Date: March 1, 2003
Subject: Psychoacoustics, Perception, and Listening Tests

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