Impact of Voice Pitch on Text Memory

Abstract

Previous research on communication has demonstrated that the quality of a speaker’s voice affects the attitude of the audience toward the speaker. The present study aimed to find out whether the pitch of a speaker’s voice affects the listener’s memory for the contents of the texts read. Stimulus materials consisted of three different texts spoken by different male speakers in different average pitches (measured as F0 in Hz). The original speech samples were digitally manipulated to produce predefined pitches. Both original and manipulated texts were then presented to participants as learning material. The results indicate a linear correlation between pitch and speaker rating in so far as low-pitched voices were rated more positively than high-pitched voices. Concerning the retention of content, it was shown that, in long-term memory, both high- and low-pitched voices led to better results than medium-pitched voices. This result was independent of whether the speech samples represented natural or manipulated voices.