Communication researchers would like to know if the quality of a speaker's voice is a reliable indicator of an effective communicator and if voice quality can reveal information about the speaker's intelligence, leadership ability, and personality type. Experimental studies involving over 400 undergraduates at the University of Nebraska sought to determine the way subjects in groups of different levels of intelligence judge a neutral message and the personality of the speaker based on a positive paralinguistic structure. Results showed that there were no significant differences among the groups in rating the topic, but a difference was observed in the way each group evaluated the speaker's personality. A possibility exists that subjects of superior intellect, in paying less attention to the paralinguistic message, tend to listen more critically to the linguistic message and use the message to rate the speaker. However, since grade point averages were the only criterion for classifying intelligence, it is possible that the data may be incomplete and that more complex research is needed. (DS)