Attribution of psychological characteristics from masked and unmasked conversations

A specific contribution of this study was the development of a procedure for separating the semantic and physical parameters of conversation. This procedure permits testing of the hypothesis that coverbal dimensions of conversation, that is, patterns of sounds and silence, convey information to independent listeners about the psychological states of speakers engaged in conversation. The masking procedure destroyed intelligibility of the conversation, but not the sequences of sounds and silences. Listeners rated speakers on three dimensions--warmth, anxiety, and dominance--under two conditions--masked and unmasked. Significant correlations were found between the ratings under both masked and unmasked conditions and between the ratings and a number of physical parameters of speech.