Voice Cues Research Articles

Listen to yourself! Prioritization of self-associated and own voice cues.

Self-cues such as one's own name or face attract attention, reflecting a bias for stimuli connected to self to be prioritized in cognition. Recent evidence suggests that even external voices can elicit this self-prioritization effect; in a voice-label matching task, external voices assigned to the Self-identity label 'you' elicited faster responses than those assigned to 'friend' or 'stranger' (Payne etal., Br. J. Psychology, 112, 585-610). However, it is not clear whether external voices assigned to Self are prioritized over participants' own voices. We explore this issue in two experiments. In Exp 1 (N = 35), a voice-label matching task comprising three external voices confirmed that reaction time and accuracy are improved when an external voice cue is assigned to Self rather than Friend or Stranger. In Exp 2 (N = 90), one of the voice cues was replaced with a recording of the participant's own voice. Reaction time and accuracy showed a consistent advantage for the participant's own-voice, even when it was assigned to the 'friend' or 'stranger' identity. These findings show that external voices can elicit self-prioritization effects if associated with Self, but they are not prioritized above individuals' own voices. This has implications for external voice production technology, suggesting own-voice imitation may be beneficial.

Perception of voice cues and speech-in-speech by children with prelingual single-sided deafness and a cochlear implant

Voice cues, such as fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal tract length (VTL), help listeners identify the speaker's gender, perceive the linguistic and emotional prosody, and segregate competing talkers. Postlingually implanted adult cochlear implant (CI) users seem to have difficulty in perceiving and making use of voice cues, especially of VTL. Early implanted child CI users, in contrast, perceive and make use of both voice cues better than CI adults, and in patterns similar to their peers with normal hearing (NH).In our study, we investigated the perception and use of voice cues in children with single-sided deafness (SSD) who received their CI at an early age (SSD+CI), in an attempt to bridge the gap between these two groups. The SSD+CI children have access to bilateral auditory information and often receive their CI at an early age, similar to CI children. They may also have dominant acoustic representations, similar to CI adults who acquired hearing loss at a later age. As such, the current study aimed to investigate the perception and use of voice cues by a group of nine early-implanted children with prelingual SSD. The study consisted of three experiments: F0 and VTL discrimination, voice gender categorization, and speech-in-speech perception. In each experiment, the results of the SSD group are compared to children and adults with CIs (for their CI ear) and with typical hearing (for their NH ear).Overall, the SSD+CI children had poorer VTL detection thresholds with their CI compared to their NH ear, while their F0 perception was similar across ears. Detection thresholds for both F0 and VTL with their CI ear was comparable to those of bilaterally implanted CI children, suggesting that SSD+CI children do not only rely on their NH ear, but actually make use of their CI. SSD+CI children relied more heavily on F0 cues than on VTL cues for voice gender categorization, with cue weighting patterns comparable to those of CI adults. In contrast to CI children, the SSD+CI children showed limited speech perception benefit based on F0 and VTL differences between the target and masker speaker, which again corresponded to the results of CI adults. Altogether, the SSD+CI children make good use of their CI, despite a good-hearing ear, however, the perceptual patterns seem to fall in-between those of CI children and CI adults. Perhaps a combination of childhood neuroplasticity, limited experience with relying only on the CI, and a dominant acoustic representation of voice gender explain these results.

Perceived prolonged stress leads to difficulties in recognizing sadness from voice cues in men but not women.

It has long been known that stress has detrimental effects on cognition (e.g., Alderson & Novack, 2002; Lupien & Lepage, 2001), most notably documented for memory functions (e.g., Schwabe & Wolf, 2013). Interestingly, less is known about the effects of stress on other cognitive functions including language processing. Here, we have examined the effects of self-reported prolonged stress on recognition of emotional language content with a particular emphasis on gender differences. We tested how well 399 participants with different perceived stress levels recognized emotional voice cues. Findings confirm previous results from the emotional prosody literature by demonstrating that women generally outperform men in the vocal emotion recognition task. Crucially, results also revealed that medium levels of perceived stress impair the ability to detect sadness from voice cues in men but not women. These findings were not modulated by task demands (e.g., speeded response) or better acoustic discrimination abilities in women. Results are in line with the idea that perceived stress has a different impact on men versus women and that women have a higher level of experience in voice sadness recognition, potentially due to their predominant role as primary caretakers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Can perpetrators discern survivors from voice?

ABSTRACT Background: Research has shown that potential perpetrators and individuals high in psychopathic traits tend to body language cues to target a potential new victim. However, whether targeting occurs also by tending to vocal cues has not been examined. Thus, the role of voice in interpersonal violence merits investigation. Objective: In two studies, we examined whether perpetrators could differentiate female speakers with and without sexual and physical assault histories (presented as rating the degree of ‘vulnerability’ to victimization). Methods: Two samples of male listeners (sample one N = 105, sample two, N = 109) participated. Each sample rated 18 voices (9 survivors and 9 controls). Listener sample one heard spontaneous speech, and listener sample two heard the second sentence of a standardized passage. Listeners’ self-reported psychopathic traits and history of previous perpetration were measured. Results: Across both samples, history of perpetration (but not psychopathy) predicted accuracy in distinguishing survivors of assault. Conclusions: These findings highlight the potential role of voice in prevention and intervention. Gaining a further understanding of what voice cues are associated with accuracy in discerning survivors can also help us understand whether or not specialized voice training could have a role in self-defense practices.

Prelingually Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants Show Better Perception of Voice Cues and Speech in Competing Speech Than Postlingually Deaf Adults With Cochlear Implants.

Postlingually deaf adults with cochlear implants (CIs) have difficulties with perceiving differences in speakers' voice characteristics and benefit little from voice differences for the perception of speech in competing speech. However, not much is known yet about the perception and use of voice characteristics in prelingually deaf implanted children with CIs. Unlike CI adults, most CI children became deaf during the acquisition of language. Extensive neuroplastic changes during childhood could make CI children better at using the available acoustic cues than CI adults, or the lack of exposure to a normal acoustic speech signal could make it more difficult for them to learn which acoustic cues they should attend to. This study aimed to examine to what degree CI children can perceive voice cues and benefit from voice differences for perceiving speech in competing speech, comparing their abilities to those of normal-hearing (NH) children and CI adults. CI children's voice cue discrimination (experiment 1), voice gender categorization (experiment 2), and benefit from target-masker voice differences for perceiving speech in competing speech (experiment 3) were examined in three experiments. The main focus was on the perception of mean fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL), the primary acoustic cues related to speakers' anatomy and perceived voice characteristics, such as voice gender. CI children's F0 and VTL discrimination thresholds indicated lower sensitivity to differences compared with their NH-age-equivalent peers, but their mean discrimination thresholds of 5.92 semitones (st) for F0 and 4.10 st for VTL indicated higher sensitivity than postlingually deaf CI adults with mean thresholds of 9.19 st for F0 and 7.19 st for VTL. Furthermore, CI children's perceptual weighting of F0 and VTL cues for voice gender categorization closely resembled that of their NH-age-equivalent peers, in contrast with CI adults. Finally, CI children had more difficulties in perceiving speech in competing speech than their NH-age-equivalent peers, but they performed better than CI adults. Unlike CI adults, CI children showed a benefit from target-masker voice differences in F0 and VTL, similar to NH children. Although CI children's F0 and VTL voice discrimination scores were overall lower than those of NH children, their weighting of F0 and VTL cues for voice gender categorization and their benefit from target-masker differences in F0 and VTL resembled that of NH children. Together, these results suggest that prelingually deaf implanted CI children can effectively utilize spectrotemporally degraded F0 and VTL cues for voice and speech perception, generally outperforming postlingually deaf CI adults in comparable tasks. These findings underscore the presence of F0 and VTL cues in the CI signal to a certain degree and suggest other factors contributing to the perception challenges faced by CI adults.

Effects of Speech Cues on Acoustics and Intelligibility of Korean-Speaking Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Reduced speech intelligibility is often a hallmark of children with dysarthria secondary to cerebral palsy (CP), but effects of speech strategies for increasing intelligibility are understudied, especially in children who speak languages other than English. This study examined the effects of (the Korean translation of) two cues, "speak with your big mouth" and "speak with your strong voice," on speech acoustics and intelligibility of Korean-speaking children with CP. Fifteen Korean-speaking children with CP repeated words and sentences in habitual, big mouth, and strong voice conditions. Acoustic analyses were performed and intelligibility was assessed by means of 90 blinded listeners' ease-of-understanding (EoU) ratings and percentage of words correctly transcribed (PWC). In response to both cues, children's vocal intensity and utterance duration increased significantly and differentially, whereas their vowel space area gains did not reach statistical significance. EoU increased significantly in the big mouth condition at word, but not sentence, level, whereas in the strong voice condition, EoU increased significantly at both levels. PWC increases were not statistically significant. Considerable variability in children's responses to cues was noted overall. Korean-speaking children with CP modify their speech styles differentially when provided with cues aimed to increase their articulatory working space and vocal intensity. The results provide preliminary support for the use of the strong voice cue, in particular, to increase EoU. While the findings do not offer conclusive evidence of the intelligibility benefits of these cues, investigation with a larger sample size should provide further insight into optimal cueing strategies for increasing intelligibility in this population. Implications for language-specific versus language-independent treatment approaches are discussed. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25521052.

Spectral resolution and voice cue weighting in adults with normal hearing

Cochlear implant (CI) users use acoustic voice cues differently than normal hearing (NH) adults to identify a talker’s gender. Specifically, whereas NH listeners weight a talker’s fundamental frequency (f0) and resonance (operationalized as vocal tract length or VTL) equally, CI users rely almost exclusively on f0. CI users’ abnormal cue weighting may partially arise due to degraded auditory information delivered by the CI. We hypothesized that altering the amount of spectral information in the signal impacts voice cue weighting in NH listeners. Thirty NH adults performed a gender identification task. Auditory stimuli were monosyllabic words synthesized to have one of five f0 values and one of five VTL values. Synthesized voices were processed using a 16-, 8-, and 4-channel noise-band vocoder. Perceptual weights for each voice cue were estimated as the coefficients for f0 and VTL in regression models, with higher coefficients corresponding to stronger perceptual weightings. Listeners relied more on f0 in conditions with less spectral resolution than in conditions with greater spectral resolution. Cue weights for VTL did not change across conditions. Results suggest that removing frequency information from the auditory signal can modify the extent to which listeners use f0 to identify the gender of a talker.

Voice perception as a bridge between psychoacoustics and speech intelligibility

While clinical assessments of speech intelligibility focus on the reception of phonetic to lexical cues by a listener, in natural situations, speech also contains cues that inform the listener about the identity of the talker, or their emotional state. These indexical cues contribute to the access of phonetic information, either through talker normalisation, or by promoting the segregation of competing talkers. They can also directly affect the interpretation of the lexical content, e.g., through prosody. In other words, indexical cues play a crucial role in everyday communication. Yet, they are rarely considered in clinical evaluations of hearing impairment. Through various studies involving child and adult hearing aid and cochlear implant users, it appears that some voice cues are more affected by hearing loss than others, and this could have consequences on the development and remediation strategies. These studies also highlight the central role that voice perception study could play in connecting psychoacoustics to communication sciences. As voice literally carries the linguistic information in speech, it sits at the forefront of auditory processing. The mechanisms underpinning hearing loss thus tend to directly affect the neural representations of voice properties. As voice manipulation technologies are becoming more precise and more widely available, new opportunities arise to link peripheral auditory deficits to speech processing difficulties in populations with impaired hearing.

Interacting with Smart Virtual Assistants for Individuals with Dysarthria: A Comparative Study on Usability and User Preferences

This study explores the effectiveness and user experience of different interaction methods used by individuals with dysarthria when engaging with Smart Virtual Assistants (SVAs). It focuses on three primary modalities: direct speech commands through Alexa, non-verbal voice cues via the Daria system, and eye gaze control. The objective is to assess the usability, workload, and user preferences associated with each method, catering to the varying communication capabilities of individuals with dysarthria. While Alexa and Daria facilitate voice-based interactions, eye gaze control offers an alternative for those unable to use voice commands, including users with severe dysarthria. This comparative approach aims to determine how the usability of each interaction method varies, conducted with eight participants with dysarthria. The results indicated that non-verbal voice interactions, particularly with the Daria system, were favored because of their lower workload and ease of use. The eye gaze technology, while viable, presented challenges in terms of the higher workload and usability. These findings highlight the necessity of diversifying interaction methods with SVAs to accommodate the unique needs of individuals with dysarthria.

Is Silent External Human–Machine Interface (eHMI) Enough? A Passenger-Centric Study on Effective eHMI for Autonomous Personal Mobility Vehicles in the Field

Autonomous personal mobility vehicle (APMV) is a miniaturized autonomous vehicle designed for short-distance mobility to everyone. Due to its open design, APMV’s passengers are exposed to communications between the external human-machine interface (eHMI) on APMV and pedestrians. Therefore, effective eHMI designs for APMV need to consider potential impacts of APMV-pedestrian interactions on passengers’ subjective feelings. This study from the perspective of APMV passengers discussed three eHMI designs: (1) graphical user interface (GUI)-based eHMI with text message (eHMI-T), (2) multimodal user interface (MUI)-based eHMI with neutral voice (eHMI-NV), and (3) MUI-based eHMI with affective voice (eHMI-AV). In a riding field experiment (N = 24), eHMI-T made passengers feel awkward during the “silent time” when eHMI-T conveyed information exclusively to pedestrians, not passengers. MUI-based eHMIs with voice cues showed advantages, with eHMI-NV excelling in pragmatic quality and eHMI-AV in hedonic quality. Considering passengers’ personalities and genders in APMV eHMI design is also highlighted.

Perception of voice cues in school-age children with hearing aids.

The just-noticeable differences (JNDs) of the voice cues of voice pitch (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL) were measured in school-aged children with bilateral hearing aids and children and adults with normal hearing. The JNDs were larger for hearing-aided than normal-hearing children up to the age of 12 for F0 and into adulthood for all ages for VTL. Age was a significant factor for both groups for F0 JNDs, but only for the hearing-aided group for VTL JNDs. Age of maturation was later for F0 than VTL. Individual JNDs of the two groups largely overlapped for F0, but little for VTL. Hearing thresholds (unaided or aided, 500-400 Hz, overlapping with mid-range speech frequencies) did not correlate with the JNDs. However, extended low-frequency hearing thresholds (unaided, 125-250 Hz, overlapping with voice F0 ranges) correlated with the F0 JNDs. Hence, age and hearing status differentially interact with F0 and VTL perception, and VTL perception seems challenging for hearing-aided children. On the other hand, even children with profound hearing loss could do the task, indicating a hearing aid benefit for voice perception. Given the significant age effect and that for F0 the hearing-aided children seem to be catching up with age-typical development, voice cue perception may continue developing in hearing-aided children.

Use of a humanoid robot for auditory psychophysical testing.

Tasks in psychophysical tests can at times be repetitive and cause individuals to lose engagement during the test. To facilitate engagement, we propose the use of a humanoid NAO robot, named Sam, as an alternative interface for conducting psychophysical tests. Specifically, we aim to evaluate the performance of Sam as an auditory testing interface, given its potential limitations and technical differences, in comparison to the current laptop interface. We examine the results and durations of two voice perception tests, voice cue sensitivity and voice gender categorisation, obtained from both the conventionally used laptop interface and Sam. Both tests investigate the perception and use of two speaker-specific voice cues, fundamental frequency (F0) and vocal tract length (VTL), important for characterising voice gender. Responses are logged on the laptop using a connected mouse, and on Sam using the tactile sensors. Comparison of test results from both interfaces shows functional similarity between the interfaces and replicates findings from previous studies with similar tests. Comparison of test durations shows longer testing times with Sam, primarily due to longer processing times in comparison to the laptop, as well as other design limitations due to the implementation of the test on the robot. Despite the inherent constraints of the NAO robot, such as in sound quality, relatively long processing and testing times, and different methods of response logging, the NAO interface appears to facilitate collecting similar data to the current laptop interface, confirming its potential as an alternative psychophysical test interface for auditory perception tests.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Vocal Emotional Processing in Musicians and Non-Musicians.

Musicians outperform non-musicians in vocal emotion recognition, but the underlying mechanisms are still debated. Behavioral measures highlight the importance of auditory sensitivity towards emotional voice cues. However, it remains unclear whether and how this group difference is reflected at the brain level. Here, we compared event-related potentials (ERPs) to acoustically manipulated voices between musicians (n = 39) and non-musicians (n = 39). We used parameter-specific voice morphing to create and present vocal stimuli that conveyed happiness, fear, pleasure, or sadness, either in all acoustic cues or selectively in either pitch contour (F0) or timbre. Although the fronto-central P200 (150-250 ms) and N400 (300-500 ms) components were modulated by pitch and timbre, differences between musicians and non-musicians appeared only for a centro-parietal late positive potential (500-1000 ms). Thus, this study does not support an early auditory specialization in musicians but suggests instead that musicality affects the manner in which listeners use acoustic voice cues during later, controlled aspects of emotion evaluation.

How neurotypical listeners recognize emotions expressed through vocal cues by speakers with high-functioning autism.

We conducted an investigation to explore how neurotypical (NT) listeners perceive the emotional tone of voice in sentences spoken by individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and NT speakers. The investigation included both male and female speakers from both groups. In Study 1, NT listeners were asked to identify the emotional prosody (anger, fear, happiness, surprise or neutral) conveyed by the speakers. Results revealed that emotional expressions produced by male ASD speakers were generally less accurately recognized compared to male NT speakers. In contrast, emotions expressed by female ASD speakers were more accurately categorized compared to female NT speakers, except when expressing fear. This suggests that female ASD speakers may not express emotional prosody in the same way as their male counterparts. In Study 2, a subset of produced materials was rated for valence, voice modulation, and voice control to supplement Study 1 results: Female ASD speakers sounded less negative when expressing fear compared to female NT speakers. Male ASD speakers were perceived as less positive than NT speakers when expressing happiness. Voice modulation also differed between groups, showing a tendency for ASD speakers to follow different display rules for both positive emotions (happiness and surprise) tested. Finally, male ASD speakers were rated to use voice cues less appropriately compared to NT male speakers, an effect less pronounced for female ASD speakers. Together, the results imply that difficulties in social interactions among individuals with high-functioning ASD could be due to non-prototypical voice use of male ASD speakers and emphasize that female individuals do not show the same effects.

Simultaneous relative cue reliance in speech-on-speech masking.

Modern hearing research has identified the ability of listeners to segregate simultaneous speech streams with a reliance on three major voice cues, fundamental frequency, level, and location. Few of these studies evaluated reliance for these cues presented simultaneously as occurs in nature, and fewer still considered the listeners' relative reliance on these cues owing to the cues' different units of measure. In the present study trial-by-trial analyses were used to isolate the listener's simultaneous reliance on the three voice cues, with the behavior of an ideal observer [Green and Swets (1966). (Wiley, New York), pp.151-178] serving as a comparison standard for evaluating relative reliance. Listeners heard on each trial a pair of randomly selected, simultaneous recordings of naturally spoken sentences. One of the recordings was always from the same talker, a distracter, and the other, with equal probability, was from one of two target talkers differing in the three voice cues. The listener's task was to identify the target talker. Among 33 clinically normal-hearing adults only one relied predominantly on voice level, the remaining were split between voice fundamental frequency and/or location. The results are discussed regarding their implications for the common practice in studies of using target-distracter level as a dependent measure of speech-on-speech masking.

An Ideal-observer standard for evaluating relative cue reliance on multi-talker speech segregation

Modern hearing research identifies the ability of listeners to segregate simultaneous speech streams with a reliance on three major voice cues, fundamental frequency, level, and location. Few of these studies, however, present cues simultaneously as in natural listening, and fewer still consider the relative reliance listeners placed on these cues owing to the cues’ different units of measure. In the present study, trial-by-trial analyses were used to isolate listener reliance on the three voice cues presented simultaneously, with the behavior of an ideal observer (Green and Swets, 1966, pp. 151–178) serving as standard for determining their relative reliance. Listeners heard on each trial a pair of randomly selected, simultaneously recordings of naturally spoken sentences. One of the recordings was always from the same talker, a distracter, the other, with equal probability, was from one of two target talkers differing in the three voice cues. The listener’s task was to identify the target talker. Among 33 clinically normal-hearing adults only one relied predominantly on voice level, the remaining were split between voice fundamental frequency and location. The results are discussed regarding their implications for the common practice of using target-distracter level as a dependent measure of multi-talker speech segregation.

An Interaction Framework for Designing Systems for Virtual Home Assistants and People with Dysarthria

AbstractPeople with speech impairments usually use assistive technology devices to assist them with communication and daily tasks. These devices can be controlled using different modalities, such as touch, eye gaze, gestures, and others. This article proposes a standardized methodology for designing non-verbal voice cue interactive systems that enable people with dysarthria to vocally interact with virtual home assistants (VHAs). We adopted a qualitative data-gathering approach to gain insights into users’ experiences and requirements and to determine crucial design elements for designing interactive voice assistants for people with dysarthria. Nineteen participants with varying levels of dysarthria took part in the study to create the framework. A system was then built using the proposed framework, and an additional test was performed with a further seven participants to validate the created system, thus inferring the validity of the framework. Our work empirically demonstrates how an informed, structured design of a fast, direct (verbal rather than forcing users to change modalities or using an intermediate device) method of communication improves the usability of VHAs for people with dysarthria while simultaneously allowing for a more authentic experience. The current data also highlighted that using non-verbal voice cues would be a convenient option. By providing a reproducible framework for developing non-verbal interactive systems for VHAs, we can increase the accessibility of said devices, their usability, and their user experience.

The Role of Word Content, Sentence Information, and Vocoding for Voice Cue Perception.

For voice perception, two voice cues, the fundamental frequency (fo) and/or vocal tract length (VTL), seem to largely contribute to identification of voices and speaker characteristics. Acoustic content related to these voice cues is altered in cochlear implant transmitted speech, rendering voice perception difficult for the implant user. In everyday listening, there could be some facilitation from top-down compensatory mechanisms such as from use of linguistic content. Recently, we have shown a lexical content benefit on just-noticeable differences (JNDs) in VTL perception, which was not affected by vocoding. Whether this observed benefit relates to lexicality or phonemic content and whether additional sentence information can affect voice cue perception as well were investigated in this study. This study examined lexical benefit on VTL perception, by comparing words, time-reversed words, and nonwords, to investigate the contribution of lexical (words vs. nonwords) or phonetic (nonwords vs. reversed words) information. In addition, we investigated the effect of amount of speech (auditory) information on fo and VTL voice cue perception, by comparing words to sentences. In both experiments, nonvocoded and vocoded auditory stimuli were presented. The outcomes showed a replication of the detrimental effect reversed words have on VTL perception. Smaller JNDs were shown for stimuli containing lexical and/or phonemic information. Experiment 2 showed a benefit in processing full sentences compared to single words in both fo and VTL perception. In both experiments, there was an effect of vocoding, which only interacted with sentence information for fo. In addition to previous findings suggesting a lexical benefit, the current results show, more specifically, that lexical and phonemic information improves VTL perception. fo and VTL perception benefits from more sentence information compared to words. These results indicate that cochlear implant users may be able to partially compensate for voice cue perception difficulties by relying on the linguistic content and rich acoustic cues of everyday speech. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23796405.

Comparison of face-based and voice-based first impressions in a Chinese sample.

People often form first impressions of others based on face and/or voice cues. This study aimed to compare the first impressions formed under these two cues. First, we compared free descriptions based on face and voice cues and found differences in the content and frequency of the personality words. We then compiled three wordlists used for face-based and voice-based first impression evaluations separately or simultaneously. Second, using these wordlists, we compared face-based and voice-based first impression ratings and found that both had significant intra-rater and inter-rater reliability. However, using the mean of the actors' self-rating and their acquaintance rating as the validity criterion, only the ratings of 'ingenuous' and 'mature' traits in the face-based first impression evaluation were significantly correlated with the validity criterion. Factor analysis revealed that face-based first impression had the dimensions of capability and approachability, while voice-based first impression had capability, approachability and reliability. The findings indicate that stable first impressions can be formed by either face or voice cues. However, the specific composition of impressions will vary between the cues. These results also provide a foundation for studying first impressions formed by an integrated perception of voice and face cues.

Effects of age and musical expertise on perception of speech in speech maskers in adults

Perceiving “cocktail party” speech, or speech-on-speech (SoS), requires perceptual mechanisms such as segregating target from masking speech using voice cues, and on cognitive mechanisms such as selective attention and inhibition. Both aging and musical expertise have been shown to affect these mechanisms. Voice cues that help distinguish different speakers include mean fundamental frequency (F0), related to voice pitch, and the vocal-tract length (VTL), related to speaker size. Some studies reported older adults’ decreased sensitivity to F0 differences, possibly affecting their ability to discriminate speakers. Furthermore, age-related cognitive changes may lead to difficulties in attention direction and inhibition. Compared to non-musicians, musicians are reported to show enhanced processing of acoustic features such as F0, as well as enhanced cognitive abilities such as auditory attention skills and working memory. While this intuitively could lead to a musician advantage for SoS, reports of musicians outperforming non-musicians are inconsistent across both younger and older adults. Differences across previous SoS paradigms have made comparison of musicianship advantages in SoS in younger and older adults—and underlying mechanisms—difficult. Therefore, we investigated the extent to which older compared to younger adults benefit from either musical expertise or F0 and VTL differences between target and masker voices.