title: Shielding voices: The modulation of binding processes between voice features and response features by task representations.
abstract: Vocal events offer not only semantic-linguistic content but also information about the identity and the emotional-motivational state of the speaker. Furthermore, most vocal events have implications for our actions and therefore include action-related features. But the relevance and irrelevance of vocal features varies from task to task. The present study investigates binding processes for perceptual and action-related features of spoken words and their modulation by the task representation of the listener. Participants reacted with two response keys to eight different words spoken by a male or a female voice (Experiment 1) or spoken by an angry or neutral male voice (Experiment 2). There were two instruction conditions: half of participants learned eight stimulus-response mappings by rote (SR), and half of participants applied a binary task rule (TR). In both experiments, SR instructed participants showed clear evidence for binding processes between voice and response features indicated by an interaction between the irrelevant voice feature and the response. By contrast, as indicated by a three-way interaction with instruction, no such binding was found in the TR instructed group. These results are suggestive of binding and shielding as two adaptive mechanisms that ensure successful communication and action in a dynamic social environment.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Experimental Psychology , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bogon
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , University of Southampton , Southampton , UK.
authors.forename: Hedwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eisenbarth
authors.affiliation: c Department of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychotherapy , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.|d Berlin School of Mind and Brain , Humboldt University Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Landgraf
authors.affiliation: a Department of Experimental Psychology , University of Regensburg , Regensburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Gesine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dreisbach
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D060865:Repetition Priming; D012660:Semantics; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014831:Voice; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Feature binding; Partial repetition costs; Social-affective features; Task shielding; Voice perception