Harry Hollien

Longitudinal research on adolescent voice change in males

Many of the characteristics and processes associated with adolescence are reasonably well understood; others are not. Still unanswered are questions about adolescent voice change. For example, when does the average child start the process; what changes result and what is their extent; when is it complete? Further, how closely do shifts in vocal level parallel, or even predict, the adolescent process? This project was carried out in order to obtain data which would complement available information on the subject and provide additional specificity about voice change and pubescence--at least for boys. To that end, a longitudinal study was conducted in which 48 males were tracked over a 5-year period. Voice measurements were made--including speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) and phonational frequency range (PFR)--as were others relating to physical size (height, weight, and six body dimensions). It was found that (1) stable adolescent voice change (AVC) measurements could be obtained, (2) maturation patterns appeared predictable on the basis of AVC changes, and (3) both the onset and duration of voice change extended over a longer period of time than had been previously thought.

Speaking fundamental frequency characteristics as a function of age and professional singing

Summary The purposes of this project were to discover (1) if the speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) levels of professional singers differ significantly from those of nonsingers and (2) if the age-related SFF patterns are similar for these two classes of individuals. Sixty professional singers and 94 nonsingers were recorded reading the first paragraph of the “Rainbow Passage;” both males and females were included. Three paired groups (young, middle, and old age) were studied; they were selected on the basis of health and age. The professional singer groups were further divided by a binary voice classification system, specifically that of soprano/alto for women and tenor/baritone for men. It was found that the sopranos and tenors exhibited significantly higher SFF levels then did the age-matched nonsingers, whereas the altos and baritones did not differ significantly from the controls. Relationships within the performer groups were mixed. For example, there appeared to be a systemic trend for the sopranos and tenors to exhibit higher SFF levels than the altos and baritones. Finally, although the nonsinger SFF levels varied significantly as a function of age, those for the professional singers did not.

Perceptual responses to infant crying: identification of cry types

This report describes a perceptual study on the ability of mothers to perceptually differentiate cry samples elicited by three different stimulus situations. In some instances mothers were evaluating cries produced by their own infant; in other cases they judged those produced by infants with whom they were unfamiliar. The results of the investigation indicated that the eighteen mothers were generally unable to successfully match the cry samples with the three cry-evoking situations. Further, no differential advantage was found when mothers were judging samples produced by their own infant.

Perceptual identification of voices under normal, stress, and disguised speaking conditions

A number of authors have contended that, at present, the human auditor is the most accurate “system” for correctly identifying speakers from tape‐recorded materials; other authors have indicated that individuals do not have to know the speakers in order to make highly accurate judgments of this type. This research attempts to test these two assumptions. Talkers were 10 adult males who read a modernization of R. L. Stevensons “Apology for Idlers” under three conditions: (a) normal speech, (b) stress (talkers were subjected to randomly distributed electric shocks while speaking), and (c) disguised speech. Three types of listeners were utilized: (a) listeners who knew the talkers, (b) listeners who did not know the talkers but who were native speakers of English, and (c) listeners who knew neither the talkers or the language (i. e., native speakers of Polish who did not know English). The listeners who knew the speakers scored very high for all speaking conditions, nearly 100% for both normal and stress and...

The false vocal folds: shape and size in frontal view during phonation based on laminagraphic tracings.

The geometry of the false vocal fold region during phonation is important to the understanding of the aerodynamics and acoustics of voice. The shape and dimensions of this region during phonation were estimated using laminagraphic tracings of the larynx. Laminagrams from two previous studies, one with non-singer subjects (Experiment I, Hollien and Colton, 1969) and the other with singers (Experiment II, Wilson, 1972), were traced, photocopied, and measured. Statistical analysis showed significantly greater false vocal fold height in males than females for both experiments. The false vocal fold gap was also significantly greater in males than females for Experiment II, but reached only borderline significance for Experiment I. For each gender, most of the linear measures were greater in Experiment I when compared to Experiment II; these differences may be passive in nature (due to actual differences in subject size) or active (due to muscle contraction that displaced the false vocal folds during singing).

Effects of ethanol intoxication on speech suprasegmentals

The effects of ingesting ethanol have been shown to be somewhat variable in humans. To date, there appear to be but few universals. Yet, the question often arises: is it possible to determine if a person is intoxicated by observing them in some manner? A closely related question is: can speech be used for this purpose and, if so, can the degree of intoxication be determined? One of the many issues associated with these questions involves the relationships between a persons paralinguistic characteristics and the presence and level of inebriation. To this end, young, healthy speakers of both sexes were carefully selected and sorted into roughly equal groups of light, moderate, and heavy drinkers. They were asked to produce four types of utterances during a learning phase, when sober and at four strictly controlled levels of intoxication (three ascending and one descending). The primary motor speech measures employed were speaking fundamental frequency, speech intensity, speaking rate and nonfluencies. Several statistically significant changes were found for increasing intoxication; the primary ones included rises in F0, in task duration and for nonfluencies. Minor gender differences were found but they lacked statistical significance. So did the small differences among the drinking category subgroups and the subject groupings related to levels of perceived intoxication. Finally, although it may be concluded that certain changes in speech suprasegmentals will occur as a function of increasing intoxication, these patterns cannot be viewed as universal since a few subjects (about 20%) exhibited no (or negative) changes.

Perceptual confusions of high-pitched sung vowels.

Questions exist as to the intelligibility of vowels sung at extremely high fundamental frequencies and, especially, when the fundamental frequency (F0) produced is above the region where the first vowel formant (F1) would normally occur. Can such vowels be correctly identified and, if so, does context provide the necessary information or are acoustical elements also operative? To this end, 18 professional singers (5 males and 13 females) were recorded when singing 3 isolated vowels at high and low pitches at both loud and soft levels. Aural-perceptual studies employing four types of auditors were carried out to determine the identity of these vowels, and the nature of the confusions with other vowels. Subsequent acoustical analysis focused on the actual fundamental frequencies sung plus those defining the first 2 vowel formants. It was found that F0 change had a profound effect on vowel perception; one of the more important observations was that the target tended to shift toward vowels with an F1 just above the sung frequency.

Speaker identification by long‐term spectra under normal and distorted speech conditions

Two experiments were carried out in which long‐term spectra were extracted from controlled speech samples in order to study the effectiveness of that technique as a cue for speaker identification. In the first study, power spectra were computed separately for groups of 50 American and 50 Polish male speakers under fullband and passband conditions; an n‐dimensional Euclidean distance technique was used to permit identifications. The procedure resulted in high levels of speaker identification for these large groups—especially under the fullband conditions. In a second experiment, the same approach was employed in order to discover if it was resistant to the effects of variation in speech production—at least under laboratory conditions. Talkers were 25 adult American males; three different speaker conditons were studied: (a) normal speech, (b) speech during stress, and (c) disguised speech. The results demonstrated high levels of correct speaker identification for normal speech, slightly reduced scores for s...

Stress and Deception in Speech: Evaluating Layered Voice Analysis

Abstract:  This study was designed to evaluate commonly used voice stress analyzers—in this case the layered voice analysis (LVA) system. The research protocol involved the use of a speech database containing materials recorded while highly controlled deception and stress levels were systematically varied. Subjects were 24 each males/females (age range 18–63 years) drawn from a diverse population. All held strong views about some issue; they were required to make intense contradictory statements while believing that they would be heard/seen by peers. The LVA system was then evaluated by means of a double blind study using two types of examiners: a pair of scientists trained and certified by the manufacturer in the proper use of the system and two highly experienced LVA instructors provided by this same firm. The results showed that the “true positive” (or hit) rates for all examiners averaged near chance (42–56%) for all conditions, types of materials (e.g., stress vs. unstressed, truth vs. deception), and examiners (scientists vs. manufacturers). Most importantly, the false positive rate was very high, ranging from 40% to 65%. Sensitivity statistics confirmed that the LVA system operated at about chance levels in the detection of truth, deception, and the presence of high and low vocal stress states.

Speaking Fundamental Frequency Patterns of Japanese Women

The purpose of this research was to obtain information on the speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) mean levels, variability and patterns of Japanese females and contrast them with those of Caucasian speakers of American English. To this end, 56 young women--32 Japanese and 24 Americans--read standard passages in either or both the Japanese and English languages. It was found that the Japanese exhibited higher fundamental frequencies than did the Americans for all speaking conditions, and this contrast was statistically significant. Additionally--and unlike the American speakers--most Japanese women exhibited bimodal SFF distribution patterns. It is judged that the observed differences in level and distribution result primarily from differences in the structure of the two languages.