A modulatory effect of male voice pitch on long-term memory in women: evidence of adaptation for mate choice?
David S. Smith, Benedict C. Jones, David R. Feinberg and Kevin Allan
From a functionalist perspective, human memory should be attuned to information of adaptive value for ones survival and reproductivefitness. While evidence of sensitivity to survival-related information is growing, specific links between memory and informationthat could impact upon reproductive fitness have remained elusive. Here, in two experiments, we showed that memory in womenis sensitive to male voice pitch, a sexually dimorphic cue important for mate choice because it not only serves as an indicatorof genetic quality, but may also signal behavioural traits undesirable in a long-term partner. In Experiment 1, we report that womens visual object memory is significantly enhanced when an objects name is spoken during encoding ina masculinised (i.e., lower-pitch) versus feminised (i.e., higher-pitch) male voice, but that no analogous effect occurs whenwomen listen to other womens voices. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern of results, additionally showing that lowering and raising male voice pitch enhanced and impairedwomens memory, respectively, relative to a baseline (i.e., unmanipulated) voice condition. The modulatory effect of sexualdimorphism cues in the male voice may reveal a mate-choice adaptation within womens memory, sculpted by evolution in responseto the dilemma posed by the double-edged qualities of male masculinity.
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