Forming first impressions from voices
- Supervisors: Dr Nadine Lavan
- Funding: SBBS Startup Studentship
- Deadline: 31st January 2024
- Expected Start Date: Sept 2024
Research environment
The School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences at Queen Mary is one of the UK’s elite research centres, according to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). We offer a multi-disciplinary research environment and have approximately 180 PhD students working on projects in the biological and psychological sciences. Our students have access to a variety of research facilities supported by experienced staff, as well as a range of student support services.
Training and development
Our PhD students become part of Queen Mary’s Doctoral College which provides training and development opportunities, advice on funding, and financial support for research. Our students also have access to a Researcher Development Programme designed to help recognise and develop key skills and attributes needed to effectively manage research, and to prepare and plan for the next stages of their career.
Project description
When we hear another person talk, we very quickly form a first impression of who we think that person might be and what they are like: Are they an adult or a child? Polite or rude? Attractive? Clever? These first impressions may be fleeting but have been shown to affect our behaviour, in that first impressions from voices have been linked to how we decide to vote, who we would hire in a job interview, and how harshly we would sentence someone in court.
While there is some research examining how listeners form first impressions from healthy, adult voices, many questions remain unanswered. As part of this PhD project, you would examine how listeners perceive information about a person from their voice.
Possible research questions or areas of interest include but are not limited to:
- How do listeners form first impressions formed from voices that would not be considered to be part of the healthy adult population? For example, how are pathological voices, child voices, or synthetic/artificial voices perceived?
- When and how do listeners move from a first impression when initially meeting a person to a second and more lasting impression after more exposure?
- How does personal taste contribute to first impressions and how do individuals differ in how they evaluate other based on their voices?
- How do different types of information shape our first impressions? For example, when and how does information from a face, the words a person says or general contextual cues affect impressions?
- Are there ways in which listeners can change first impressions?
As part of this PhD project, you would be mainly using behavioural studies to answer these questions. Depending on your interest, there is, however, scope to also engage in acoustic analysis, electrophysiological recordings (EEG), and computational modelling of behavioural or acoustic data.
If you are interested in any of these questions, please get in touch with Dr Nadine Lavan (n.lavan@qmul.ac.uk) for an informal discussion.
Funding
The studentship is funded by Queen Mary and will cover Home tuition fees, and provide an annual tax-free maintenance allowance for 3 years at the UKRI rate (£20,622 in 2023/24).
Eligibility and applying
Applications are invited from outstanding candidates with or expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree in an area relevant to the project such as psychology, cognitive neuroscience, linguistics or speech science. A masters degree is desirable, but not essential.
Applicants should have a keen interest in studying voices and/or faces and some knowledge of the literature around voice and face perception is desirable. Similarly, experience in running behavioural experiments (e.g. in Gorilla) and analysing behavioural and acoustic data using PRAAT, MATLAB or R is desirable.
Applicants from outside of the UK are required to provide evidence of their English Language ability. Please see our English Language requirements page for details: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/international-students/englishlanguagerequirements/postgraduateresearch/
Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Dr Nadine Lavan at n.lavan@qmul.ac.uk.
Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 31st January 2024 for consideration, including a CV, personal statement and qualifications.