EXPRESS: Time after time: Voice perception from first impressions to voice recognition

When we hear someone speak, we do not just perceive "a voice." Instead, we use the sound of the voice to make sense of who we are talking to. If the voice is unfamiliar, we form an often complex first impression by inferring various characteristics about the person. If the voice is familiar, at least to some degree, we may be able to recognise and identify the person from their voice. Even though first impression formation and identity recognition are usually situated on two opposing sides of a ‘familiarity continuum’, functionally, first impressions and identity recognition thus serve the same purpose: making sense of who another person is. Theories and studies examining impression formation and identity perception from voices have, however, developed largely in isolation from one another, with there being relatively little crosstalk. In this paper, I will review some recent findings from the literatures on first impression formation from unfamiliar voices and voice identity learning and recognition from familiar(ised) voices. I will then ask how impression perception and identity perception may interact and interface with one another along this ‘familiarity continuum’ between completely unfamiliar and very familiar voices, bringing together these two literatures. Specifically, I will consider what happens to first impressions when we become increasingly familiar with a person, whether first impressions might have an impact on how (well) voices can be learned and consequently recognised, and when and how identity recognition might take over from ad-hoc impression formation.