Do You Have Voice-Blindness - Phonagnosia ?

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‘Voice-Blindness’ Is Like Face-Blindness for Your Ears

Initially, scientists thought prosopagnosia (face blindness) was extremely rare, and could only be triggered by brain damage. But newer research has revealed that it affects around 2 percent of the population, and that people can be born with it.

The research and press coverage on voice-blindness is slowly starting to catch up. From the few who’ve spoken publicly about phonagnosia, we know that it can lead to difficulties talking on the phone and distinguishing between voices when two people are talking at the same time. As you might imagine, this can lead to all manner of awkward situations.

Steve Royster, for example, realized he had voice-blindness when he was 27 years old. His boss, he said, would regularly ring him and bark orders down the phone, but Royster had no idea who was calling. A later conversation with a colleague about this revealed to Royster that it was completely normal to be able to recognize who they were speaking to on the phone, a claim that took Royster several days to accept. But since accidentally having a heated phone call with a woman he thought was his wife (but was, in fact, some other woman), Royster now makes sure he knows for sure who he’s talking to.

I couldn't find a working test online but I know I don't have it, just wondering if anyone here does.

Oh wow! I've never heard of that but it makes sense some people would experience it.

Nope, I don't have that at all. I can even picture everyone's voice in my head.
Well, kind of.
I'd definitely know them if I heard them.

I didn't know that it's a thing, but now that I do... nope, don't have it. I'm not always sure who I'm in the phone with, but even then I usually do have a guess and am right most of the time. Plus, I have prosopagnosia and voice is one of the things that do help me recognize people instead of their faces.

I'd imagine that having this would be a real pain in a group discussion in discord or the like, always having to check whose avatar shows the signs of talking.

I can't distinguish voices, especially on the phone, but i always put it down to hearing loss.
Sometimes people call me without saying who it is and its like I have to go into Guess Who? mode to work out who's speaking. Then maybe half way through the conversation they'll say something that distinguishes them and I'll suddenly ask, "Is it Jane?" or whoever, and they seem surprised that I didn't know.

I've struggled with phonagnosia as far back as I can remember until recently. It wasn't until I started studying music that I was able to develop my ears and overcome it.

No, I have never had this issue, thankfully.

I think I have this to an extent. I struggle to recall voices. This is why I'm terrible at vocal impressions! It's odd really because I remember such trivial pieces of information about a person before I remember their voice.

Someone's voice is the last thing that gets cemented in my head. I'll remember their words but often not how they were said. Which is why sometimes someone will ask me what accent someone had that I was just talking to earlier and I won't remember.

If I mentally recall a conversation I'll either hear it in my own voice or in a non-distinct echo which tells me absolutely nothing. The only exception is if the accent was very distinct / stood out to me, but this is uncommon.

Yet I do recognise people by voice. If I pick up the phone and it's my sister or my mum, I'll know. I can't imagine my mum's voice but I know it when I hear it. Yet I can quite clearly picture what she looks like.

I'll remember information like the small designs on someone's hat or gemstones on the frame of their glasses or their perfume. Heck I was even able to tell when two identical twins switched hair clips (they used hair clips as a way to show themselves apart) based on their mannerisms. I knew them so well that it was just blatantly obvious who was who. I do find that with identical twins, the longer you know them the more obvious the differences become.

Interestingly, I recall singing voices just fine.

I cannot identify people’s voices hardly ever. Certainly not on the phone.

There is a large zoom meeting I’ve attended daily for two years. I’ve just noticed that I now can recognize many of the voices. (I’m often not looking at the screen.)

That is a first.

I can totally tell voices apart. Thanks to having watched many cartoons during my lifetime, I can tell when voices sound the same as well, usually because they're being done from the same voice actor and for some reason the writers think you won't know just because the same voice was used on a different show. Ah no, I hear Peter Venkman on early episodes of The Real Ghostbusters and I hear Garfield the Cat, not Peter.

I can tell voices apart better than faces.