This book addresses various aspects of acoustic–phonetic analysis, including voice quality and fundamental frequency, and the effects of speech fluency and non-native accents, by examining read speech, public speech, and conversations. Voice is a sexually dimorphic trait that can convey important biological and social information about the speaker, and empirical findings suggest that voice characteristics and preferences play an important role in both intra- and intersexual selection, such as competition and mating, and social evaluation. Discussing evaluation criteria like physical attractiveness, pleasantness, likability, and even persuasiveness and charisma, the book bridges the gap between social and biological views on voice attractiveness. It presents conceptual, methodological and empirical work applying methods such as passive listening tests, psychoacoustic rating experiments, and crowd-sourced and interactive scenarios and highlights the diversity not only of the methods used when studying voice attractiveness, but also of the domains investigated, such as politicians’ speech, experimental speed dating, speech synthesis, vocal pathology, and voice preferences in human interactions as well as in human–computer and human–robot interactions. By doing so, it identifies widespread and complementary approaches and establishes common ground for further research.

How does a kid who survives the rain of V-2 rockets on London in the waning years of World War II, end up in Hollywood announcing the Diamond Jubilee of Oscar? Veteran Hollywood voice actor Neil Ross tells the amazing story of his life, and fifty-plus year career, in two exciting, highly competitive professions in his autobiography: Vocal Recall; A Life in Radio and Voiceovers Driving cross-country to New York at 17, Neil learns how to survive in the Big Apple on $38.06 a week, and then lives the life of a radio gypsy: Arizona, Salt Lake City, Honolulu and Saigon, where, as a Navy Journalist, Neil reports on one of the major disasters of the Viet Nam War. Then on to San Diego, San Francisco and finally, Hollywood. Neil tells of his struggle breaking into voiceovers, one of the most competitive fields in the industry. Then describes in fascinating detail what it was like to work on iconic 80's and 90's TV cartoon shows including: Transformers, G.I. Joe, Voltron and Spider-Man. As well as a slew of popular video games including: Metal Gear Solid, Call of Duty, Command and Conquer, Doom 3 and Mass Effect. Neil spins the tale of his 30-plus years in voiceovers including major motion pictures and television shows, and encounters with Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Steven Spielberg and Jerry Seinfeld. In addition to announcing the Diamond Jubilee of Oscar, Neil also works on the Primetime Emmy Awards and seven AFI Life Achievement Award telecasts. He describes in vivid detail the adrenaline pumping experience of working on live, celebrity-studded events. As Neil's story unfolds, we meet an amazing cast of characters: from Gene Autry to Jim Morrison, Little Richard to Jonathan Winters. Neil also shares his experiences with the many colorful, talented voice actors and directors he's worked with over the years, and shares stories of hilarious in-studio hijinks. Readers curious about the life of a top 40 radio DJ in the heyday of that format, fans of the many cartoon shows and games Neil has worked on, and the many beloved characters he's voiced, and folks dying to know the inside scoop on the golden age of the voiceover business will want to read this fascinating story.

Written specifically for students of experimental psychology, this book focuses on attention and memory, and attempts to inegrate these two closely related phenomena. In addition to the concepts of short term and long term memory there has been added the system of immediate or sensory memory. In the description of the representation of knowledge by human memory the author has necessarily drawn conclusions about optimal presentation and retrieval procedures, which should be transferable to non-laboratory situations where information processing is presently inadequate. The present approach attempts to keep in perspective the functions of attention and memory that the proponents of model building techniques have tended to overlook in their investigations. A new and fresh contribution to a growing area of research and teaching interest

Vocal Technique is a practical, easy-to-read guide to better singing. This new edition offers a stylistically flexible approach that allows soloists and choral singers to vary the elements of technique to sing virtually any style—classical through contemporary (musical theatre, pop/rock, jazz, and more). It is a comprehensive yet concise book covering all aspects of technique, including body alignment, breath control, initiation of sound, vocal fold closure, resonance, register use, vowels, pitch control, articulation, and vibrato. It also features expanded treatment of vocal health and development. Conductors and teachers will appreciate the numerous practical exercises. Grounded in the latest pedagogical and scientific research, Vocal Technique, Second Edition will expand the horizons of both amateur and professional singers.

This book presents a review of research on reaction processes and attention as it has evolved over the last 40 years in the context of the information processing tradition in cognitive psychology. It is argued and demonstrated that issues of reaction processes and attention are closely interconnected. Their common conceptualization can be seen in terms of limited processing capacity on the one hand, and stage analysis on the other. This volume concludes that, at present, a stage analysis metaphor offers better prospects as a conceptual starting point; the limited capacity metaphor was strongly tied to the digital computers of the 60s. The emphasis of the book is on behavioral research, but summaries of related findings on evoked potentials and other psychophysiological variables are included as well. From this perspective, it may be of interest to neuropsychologists who want to learn about the present state of cognitive experimental paradigms. Elements of Human Performance also addresses the question of the relationship between basic research and applications in the said areas. This is particularly urgent in view of the now common notion that the results of many simplified laboratory tasks may be artifactual and of little applied value. A back-to-back research strategy is outlined to assess the validity of basic research results for real-life tasks.

This textbook provides an introduction and review of connectionist models applied to psychological topics. Chapters include basic reviews of connectionist models, their properties and their attributes. The application of these models to the domains of perception, memory, attention, word processing, higher language processing, and cognitive neuropsychology is then reviewed.