Distortions in the memory of the pitch of speech

Corneille, Huart, Becquart, & Brédart (2004) found that people remember ambiguous race faces as closer to a race prototype than they actually are. In three studies, we examined whether this memory bias generalizes to voice memory. In Studies 1 and 2, participants listened to synthesized male and female speech samples (high, moderate, or low pitch) and were asked to identify a voice target when paired against distracters higher or lower in pitch. The results showed that pitch distortions occurred, with the pattern consistent with assimilation toward low and high ends of the pitch continuum. Study 3 replicated this result with a wider voice pitch range. The results parallel those of Corneille et al. (2004). The implications of this work are discussed.