Hope Maxwell, Lilley Jason
University of Delaware, Department of Linguistics & Cognitive Science, 125 E Main St, Newark, DE 19716, United States.
Nemours Biomedical Research, Center for Pediatric Auditory and Speech Sciences, 1701 Rockland Road, Room 136B, Wilmington, DE 19803, United States.
Brain Lang. 2022 Jan;224:105049. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2021.105049. Epub 2021 Nov 23.
Few studies on voice perception have attempted to address the complexity of gender perception of ambiguous voices. The current study investigated how perception of gender varies with the complexity of the listener's own gender conception and identity. We explicitly recruited participants of all genders, including those who are gender expansive (i.e. transgender and/or non-binary), and directed them to rate ambiguous synthetic voices on three independent scales of masculine, feminine, and "other" (and to select one or multiple categorical labels for them). Gender expansive listeners were more likely to use the entire expanse of the rating scales and showed systematic categorization of gender-neutral voices as non-binary. We propose this is due to repeated use of reflective processes that challenge pre-existing gender categories and the incorporation of this decision-making process into their reflexive system. Because voice gender influences speech perception, the perceptual experience of gender expansive listeners may influence perceptual flexibility in speech.
很少有关于语音感知的研究试图探讨模糊语音的性别感知的复杂性。当前的研究调查了性别感知如何随着听众自身性别概念和身份的复杂性而变化。我们明确招募了所有性别的参与者，包括那些性别认同较为宽泛的人（即跨性别者和/或非二元性别者），并指导他们在男性化、女性化和“其他”三个独立量表上对模糊的合成语音进行评分（并为它们选择一个或多个类别标签）。性别认同较为宽泛的听众更有可能使用整个评分量表范围，并将中性声音系统地归类为非二元性别。我们认为这是由于反复使用反思性过程，这些过程挑战了预先存在的性别类别，并将这种决策过程纳入了他们的反思系统。由于语音性别会影响言语感知，性别认同较为宽泛的听众的感知体验可能会影响言语感知的灵活性。
