Shielding voices: the modulation of binding processes between voice features and response features by task representations

Abstract

During speech perception, we do not only process semantic-linguistic content but also information about the identity and the motivational and emotional state of the speaker. Furthermore, most vocal events have implications for our actions and therefore include action-related features. In the present study, the authors investigate binding processes for perceptual and action-related features of spoken words and how these binding processes are modulated by the task representation of the listener. Participants had to react with two response keys to the recordings of eight different words spoken by a male or a female voice (Experiment 1) or spoken by an angry or neutral male voice (Experiment 2). There were two different instruction conditions: half of the participants learned eight stimulus-response mappings by rote (SR), and half of the participants applied a binary task rule (TR). In both experiments, SR instructed participants show clear evidence for binding processes between voice and response features indicated by an interaction between the irrelevant voice feature (speaker identity, vocal affective information) and the response. By contrast, as indicated by a three-way interaction with instruction (SR vs. TR), no such binding was found in the TR instructed groups. The results of this study are suggestive of a very adaptive binding mechanism that ensures the coherence and flexibility of speech perception.

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ORCID for Hedwig Eisenbarth: orcid.org/0000-0002-0521-2630

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