The Memorability of Voices is Predictable and Consistent across Listeners

Abstract

AbstractMemorability, the likelihood that a stimulus is remembered, is an intrinsic stimulus property that is highly consistent across people—participants tend to remember and forget the same faces, objects, and more. However, these consistencies in memory have thus far only been observed for visual stimuli. We provide the first study of auditory memorability, collecting recognition memory scores from over 3000 participants listening to a sequence of different speakers saying the same sentence. We found significant consistency across participants in their memory for voice clips and for speakers across different utterances. Next, we tested regression models incorporating both low-level (e.g., fundamental frequency) and high-level (e.g., dialect) voice properties to predict their memorability. These models were significantly predictive, and cross-validated out-of-sample, supporting an inherent memorability of speakers’ voices. These results provide the first evidence that listeners are similar in the voices they remember, which can be reliably predicted by quantifiable voice features.