Remotely collecting immediate voice production effects of semi-occluded vocal tract exercises

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of remote collection of immediate vocal production effects of semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTs). Participants received a shipment of study equipment and materials with instructions on how to set-up and configure them. The collection protocol was conducted with remote guidance from the researcher via a Zoom session. The protocol included a double baseline voice recording, experimental tasks consisting of straw phonation and straw phonation into a cup of water, and a post-task recording. Audio recordings of sustained vowels, CAPE-V sentences, and the Rainbow Passage were analyzed for jitter, shimmer, harmonic-to-noise ratio, cepstral peak prominence, and presence of a singer’s formant. Following the tasks, participants were asked to provide self-perceptual ratings of vocal quality and vocal effort. Auditory-perceptual analysis (CAPE-V) was also performed, in which expert listeners (speech-language pathologists with extensive voice backgrounds) rated differences following the SOVT tasks. Instrumentation and methodology will be discussed, with a focus on the strengths and weaknesses of remote data collection including which voice assessment metrics were still robust to immediate SOVT effects, even in a remote setting. While obtaining lab-quality audio recordings for acoustic analysis remotely is considered challenging, this study suggests that it is feasible to obtain high-quality data remotely.