Vocal Age Research Articles

Elderly listeners' estimates of vocal age in adult females.

The purpose of this study was to provide data on the ability of elderly listeners to estimate the age group of women (25-35, 45-55, 70-80) from phonated and whispered vowel productions. Further, comparisons were made between the performance of these elderly listeners and results for young listeners reported previously [S. E. Linville and H. Fisher, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 40-48 (1985)]. Tape recordings of whispered and normally phonated /ae/ vowels were played to 23 elderly women for relative age judgments. Results suggest that elderly women are not as accurate as young women in estimating age from sustained vowel productions, although the two listener groups tend to categorize individual speakers similarly. Further, it appears that listener age is a factor in acoustic cues used in making age judgments.

Acoustic characteristics of perceived versus actual vocal age in controlled phonation by adult females.

The purpose of this investigation was to obtain information on the acoustic characteristics of women's voices as a function of perceived versus actual age. Tape recordings of whispered and normally phonated /ae/ vowels were obtained from 75 women in three age groups (25-35, 45-55, and 70-80 years). One-second segments of phonemically representative /ae/ vowels were played to 23 listeners for relative age judgments. Phonated vowel productions were analyzed in terms of mean fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency standard deviation, and jitter ratio, as well as F1 and F2 frequencies. Whispered vowels were analyzed only in terms of F1 and F2 frequencies. Multiple regression analysis revealed that older age judgments based on phonated vowels were significantly associated with higher fundamental frequency standard deviation values and lower mean fundamental frequency values. Older age judgments based on whispered vowels were significantly associated with lower F1 frequencies. Results of this investigation suggest that both phonatory and resonance features play a role in defining age characteristics of women's voices. Acoustic cues associated with perceived age generally agreed with acoustic findings as a function of actual age.

Storytelling as an age-dependent skill: oral recall of orally presented stories.

During experiment 1, three taped prose passages read by college student, middle-aged, or old tellers were orally recalled by college students in an incidental memory paradigm. More story units were remembered as the age of the teller increased (r = +.642, p less than .05). Comparison of these results, with prior research using written, as opposed to oral, presentation and recall of these stories, showed no differences in specific story units remembered. Teller age predicted recall on the two "storied" passages. These passages elicited more favorable comments from listeners when read by older tellers. The third, descriptive passage was less favorably regarded by listeners hearing older tellers. During experiment 2, taped storied passages read by middle-aged tellers were falsely attributed to young, middle-aged, or old persons before the college students listened. Incidental recall did not show an age of teller effect in this case, but the listener's evaluation of the speaker exhibited age-dependent stereotypes. It was concluded that 1) physical qualities of older voices lead to more effective oral transmission; 2) that one expects to receive certain types of oral information from older persons; and 3) that a mismatch between physical vocal quality and age attribution effects evaluation of the speaker, not recall of the information.