Developing a test to assess the ability of Zurich’s police cadets to discriminate, learn and recognize voices
The goal of this pilot study is to develop a test through which people with extraordinary voice recognition and discrimination skills can be found (for forensic purposes). Since interest in this field has emerged, three studies have been published with the goal of finding people with potential super-recognition skills in voice processing. One of them is a discrimination test and two are recognition tests, but neither combines the two test scenarios and their test designs cannot be directly compared to a casework scenario in forensics phonetics. The pilot study at hand attempts to bridge this gap and analyses if the skills of voice discrimination and recognition correlate. The study is guided by a practical, forensic application, which further complicates the process of creating a viable test. The participants for the pilot consist of different classes of police cadets, which means the test can be redone and adjusted over time.
Neural systems for vocal perception
For social animals, successfully communicating with others is essential for interactions and survival. My research aims to answer a central question on the neuronal basis of this ability, from the perspective of the listener: how do our brains enable us to communicate with each other? My work develops nonhuman animal models to study the behavioural and neuronal mechanisms underlying the perception of vocal patterns. I will start by providing an overview of my past research characterizing the neuronal-level substrates of voice processing along the primate temporal lobe. I will then focus on my current work on vocal perception in mice, in which I utilize natural male-female courtship behaviour to evaluate the acoustic dimensions extracted by listeners from ultrasonic sequences. I will then talk about ongoing work investigating the neuronal substrates supporting the perception of behaviourally relevant acoustic cues from mouse vocal sequences.