The effect of prosody on verbal perception in dichotic listening: Does a desperate voice bias attention?

Background and Aim: Care has long been considered as a significant ingredient of morality. As such, there is an evolutionary disposition toward empathizing with and helping those in need. Therefore, it can be expected that the cues associated with pain and suffering, including a desperate crying prosody, are considered as salient stimuli by the cognitive system. Methods: Thirty female right-handed university students participated in this study (Mage = ۱۹.۲۳, SDage ۲.۲۵). None of participants reported a history of auditory deficit. The dichotic listening procedure consisted of three main blocks, namely, non-forced, forced-right, and forced-left. On each trial, two nonsense words differing in their first consonant and uttered by a female voice were presented simultaneously to the right and left ear. Each block contained ۳۶ trials, including all ۱۲ possible word pairs multiplied by three prosody combinations (R-L: Neutral-Neutral, Desperate-Neutral, Neutral-Desperate). Respondents' task was to react whenever they detected a particular target word in either of the ears (non-forced condition) or only one ear (forced-right/-left conditions). The order of forced-right and forced-left blocks was counterbalanced. Within-subject ANOVAs were used to examine the effect of block type and prosody combination on accuracy, reaction time, and attentional gain compared to the non-forced condition. Results: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of desperate prosody on selective attention using the dichotic listening paradigm. It was hypothesized that such prosody would more readily capture attention and be more difficult to inhibit when unattended. Conclusion: The non-forced condition yielded a right-ear advantage of ۰.۲۸ which was significantly different from zero, p <.۰۰۱. The effect of block prosody was significant on accuracy, p <.۰۰۱. However, contrary to predictions, there was a tendency for individuals to respond more correctly to trials involving desperate prosody on the unattended ear and neutral voice on the attended ear. The effect of block prosody was not significant on reaction time, p=.۶۱۱, but significant on accuracy attentional gain, p =.۰۴۷. Specifically, in the forced-left condition, the accuracy attentional gain for Desperate Right-Neutral Left trials was larger than Neutral-Neutral trials, p =.۰۰۱. The well-known right-ear advantage (REA) was replicated in this study, which supports left-hemisphere language dominance. However, we did not find adequate evidence for attentional salience of the non-lexical prosodic cues of cries for help.

کلیدواژه ها:

care ، dichotic listening ، prosody ، selective attention ، verbal perception