The effects of delay on voice recognition accuracy.

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted in which 176 listeners heard male and female objectively defined “high-” and “low-recognition” voices and then attempted to identify these voices from a “voice parade” containing 20 distractors after either 10, 40, 100, or 130 minutes (experiment 1), or 10 minutes, one day, seven days, or 14 days (experiment 2). In experiment 1 delay had no overall effect, although further analysis revealed that the shortest delay did produce better performance than all other delay conditions. Further, “high-recognition” voices were better identified than “low-recognition” voices. In experiment 2 delay had an overall effect, with the shortest delay interval again being significantly better than all other conditions, which did not differ among themselves. “High-” and “low-recognition” voices, however, did not exhibit a statistically significant difference, although these two factors entered into a marginally significant interaction. Theoretical speculation and forensic implications were drawn.