(HealthDayNews) -- Do you remember the television show, "Name That Tune"? Contestants would try to identify a melody after hearing only three or four notes -- and a lot of them did.
Well, how long do you think it would take you to recognize a familiar voice? Four seconds? Three? Two?
The Journal of Speech, Hearing and Language Research says you probably will recognize a familiar voice after just one second.
Researchers from the University of Konstanz, Germany, asked subjects to listen to sound clips of familiar voices. The shortest clips lasted only 0.25 seconds, but increased in length up to two seconds. The ability to recognize familiar voices increased as the clips got longer -- all the way up to one second. Anyone who didn't recognize the voice after just one second wasn't likely to recognize it at all.
