Sandra Madureira

Vocal quality assessment: methodological approach for a perceptive data analysis

Mailing address: Maria Fabiana Bonfim de Lima Silva Departamento de Fonoaudiologia, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal da Paraíba Cidade Universitária, Campus I, Castelo Branco CEP: 58051-900 João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brasil E-mail: fbl_fono@yahoo.com.br ABSTRACT Purpose: to present a methodological approach for interpreting perceptual judgments of vocal quality by a group of evaluators who used the script Vocal Profile Analysis Scheme. Methods: cross-sectional study based on 90 speech samples from 25 female teachers with voice disorders and/or laryngeal changes. Prior to the perceptual judgment, we performed three perceptual tasks to select samples which were then presented to five evaluators using the Experiment script MFC 3.2 (software PRAAT). Next, we applied a sequence of tests based on successive approaches to interand intra-evaluator behavior. Data were treated by statistical analysis (Cochran and Selenor tests). Results: with respect to the analysis of the evaluators’ performance, it was possible to define those that presented the best results, in terms of reliability and proximity of analyses, compared to the most experienced evaluator, excluding one. The results of the cluster analysis also allowed designing a voice quality profile of the group of speakers studied. Conclusions: the proposal of a methodological approach allowed defining evaluators whose judgments were based on phonetic knowledge, and drawing a vocal quality profile of the group of samples analyzed.

Lingual frenectomy and alveolar tap production: an acoustic and perceptual study.

Abstract In this phonetic study, productions of the consonant in the stressed syllable position of the word arara as produced by 13 subjects with short and/or anterior lingual frenulum were compared before and after lingual frenectomy. The results from the measurement of the stressed consonant duration and from the identification of the consonant manners of articulation based on the inspection of spectral characteristics are discussed and related to the answers to a perceptual identification test. After surgery, the number of tap productions did not increase, but alveolar productions did. These clinically relevant findings show frenectomy improved tongue mobility, but, as temporal controls were not totally re-established after surgery and 6-month speech therapy sessions, the production of the alveolar tap remained largely unchanged.