Comments on: The Sounds of Their Voices

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:58:38 +0000

I get mistaken for my mom when I pick up the phone at my parents’ house…..

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:30:10 +0000

I had severe phone anxiety for sort of the opposite reason, people don’t recognize my voice on the phone. I’ve been mistaken for my mom, and told things I didn’t want to hear. I used to only answer calls I expected, until we got caller id.

By: laurentius-rex

laurentius-rex — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:04:57 +0000

I think I have the opposite, I am good at recognising voices (rather perhaps like Henry Fieldings blind brother and bow street runner who could recognise the underworld of London by there voices alone)

I suppose it has developed as a compensation for prosopagnosia, in that I rely on the voice for recognition and often wait till someone speaks to be sure of who they are.

By: mayfly

mayfly — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:40:28 +0000

Back in my sordid past , I had to speak with places which were equipped with NBSV phones. The NBSV stands for Narrow Band Secure Voice.

Everyone sounded the same. If person A fetched person B to the phone, person B sounded just like person A, so much so that one one at first didn’t want to believe that it was indeed person B and not person A pretending to be B.

By: jypsy

jypsy — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:59:44 +0000

“In the 1980s, KH had a job in which she introduced herself with a different form of her first name so she would know that it was someone related to her job when they called and asked for her using that name.”

This works for faceblindness too and explains why some people call me “jypsy” (to my face & online), some call me “janet” and others still call me “jj”.