Alan R. Reich

Detecting the presence of vocal disguise in the male voice

This research examined the ability of naive and sophisticated listeners to detect extemporaneous disguise in the male voice. The experimental stimuli were sentences uttered in an undisguised and in a freely disguised fashion. The listeners were asked to decide whether a sentence was disguised or undisguised and to rate his/her degree of confidence in each decision. Both naive and sophisticated listeners were able to detect the presence of these particular disguises with a high degree of accuracy and reliability.

Task Administration Variables Affecting Phonation-Time Measures in Third-Grade Girls with Normal Voice Quality

Maximum and mean phonation times as a function of coaching were obtained from 28 third-grade girls with normal voice quality. All subjects produced three prolonged//trials in each of two experiment...

Acoustical characteristics of intended syllabic stress in excellent esophageal speakers: Linguistic considerations

The ability of excellent esophageal speakers to manipulate acoustical characteristics associated with intended syllabic stress was studied. Five excellent esophageal speakers and five sex- and age-matched normals produced 10 sentence pairs, each containing a bisyllabic stimulus item differing only in primary stress placement. The mean fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, and duration of the stressed and unstressed vowel nuclei were analyzed. Although some differences in absolute levels were apparent, only sound pressure level differences reached statistical significance. For both groups, intended primary stress was associated with a comparable pattern of increased fundamental frequency, sound pressure level, and duration. The present findings suggest that excellent esophageal speakers are capable of producing some correlates of primary syllabic stress in a fashion remarkably similar to but somewhat less consistent than normals. The implications of these data for long-range clinical planning are discussed.

Acoustical characteristics of primary syllabic stress in excellent esophageal speakers

Primary syllabic stress appears to be controlled by a complex interaction of fundamental frequency (∫0), sound pressure (SP), duration, and formant frequency position [D. Fry, Language and Speech 2, 126–151 (1959)]. Because esophageal speakers typically exhibit reduced ability to manipulate ∫0, SP, and duration, it seems unlikely that they would be able to approximate normal prosodic patterning. This study investigated the ability of excellent esophageal speakers to manipulate acoustical characteristics associated with primary syllabic stress. Five excellent esophageal speakers and five sex and age‐matched normals produced 10 sentence pairs, each containing a bi‐syllabic stimulus item differing only in primary stress placement. The mean ∫0, SP, and duration of the stressed and unstressed vowel nuclei were analyzed. Although some differences in absolute levels were apparent, only sound pressure level differences reached statistical significance. For both groups, primary stress was associated with a compara...