Evidence for an own-age bias in age estimation from voices in older persons.

Previous studies have investigated the effect of ageing on age estimation from faces as well as the occurrence of an own-age bias in such age estimation from faces. To the best of our knowledge, the occurrence of an own age effect on age estimation from voices has never been examined earlier using an experimental design in which the age of participants (young vs. old) and the age of voice stimuli (young vs. old) were crossed. Results revealed an own-age bias in older adults only. In comparison with younger adults, older participants showed age estimation abilities that are preserved for voices from their own age group and impaired for younger voices. This own age bias was absent in younger participants.