Some voices are more memorable than others

To understand this phenomenon, the researchers offered thousands of volunteers to listen to voice recordings. In them, different people said the same phrase. Then the participants had to press a button if they recognized a voice they had heard before. Thus it was possible to identify a pattern: certain timbres, rhythms and intonations are fixed in memory better than others.

The researchers analyzed dozens of parameters: pitch, volume, speed of speech, accent, pronunciation features. It turned out that voices with a higher tone, clear articulation and expressive delivery are remembered more often. If the voice is monotonous or too quiet, it is more difficult to keep it in memory. At the same time, the effect persisted even when phrases were changed: people recognized the speaker even if he said a different phrase.

The results of the study confirm that the memorability of voice is not an accident, but a peculiarity of information processing by our brain. Probably, the richer the spectrum of sound characteristics, the more active are the areas responsible for auditory memory. Now scientists plan to delve deeper into this question using neuroimaging methods. They want to find out how exactly the brain reacts to memorized voices and whether it is possible to predict which voice will remain in memory for a long time.

The discovery could be useful in a variety of fields. For example, in forensics – to improve the reliability of “voice witnesses”. The results could also help improve voice assistant technology, making it more natural and memorable. Companies that create podcasts and audiobooks will be able to choose voices that listeners won’t forget. And in the future, there may be specialized training to help improve voice expression.

The next step is to see if not only the voice itself, but also the meaning of what is said affects memorability. Perhaps if the speaker has a particularly expressive timbre, people will better remember his words. The researchers are already preparing a new experiment in which they will study the influence of context on the memorability of speech. They also plan to use neuroscience methods to better understand how the brain captures information about voices.