In human speech, messages are conveyed to listeners through both verbal and vocal sources. Comparing verbal content-only with verbal plus vocal content permits assessment of the contribution of vocal cues in spoken messages. This study involved evaluations of physicians interacting with patients via the telephone. Thirty doctor-patient interactions were presented to college students who served as raters in an audio-only (N=35) or a transcript-only (N=25) condition. Following each segment, subjects rated the physicians using 10 bipolar adjective pairs which resulted in supervariables of empathic, dominant, and calm. The results revealed that females rated doctors as more empathic, dominant, and calm than did males, and communication modes were significantly different with audio segments rated more positively. Middle phases were evaluated more positively than greeting phases. Interactions between temporal phase and mode indicated that audio segments were interpreted more positively during middle phases. Also, female raters were more sensitive to audio segments. Physicians' amplitude and speech rate were positively correlated with dominance ratings. These findings suggest that vocal cues are subtle but powerful aspects of a message which account for a considerable portion of the information individuals use in developing perceptions of others. (Author/NB)