Individual differences in the discrimination of novel speech sounds: effects of sex, temporal processing, musical and cognitive abilities

This study examined whether rapid temporal auditory processing, verbal working memory capacity, non-verbal intelligence, executive functioning, musical ability and prior foreign language experience predicted how well native English speakers (N = 120) discriminated Norwegian tonal and vowel contrasts as well as a non-speech analogue of the tonal contrast and a native vowel contrast presented over noise. Results confirmed a male advantage for temporal and tonal processing, and also revealed that temporal processing was associated with both non-verbal intelligence and speech processing. In contrast, effects of musical ability on non-native speech-sound processing and of inhibitory control on vowel discrimination were not mediated by temporal processing. These results suggest that individual differences in non-native speech-sound processing are to some extent determined by temporal auditory processing ability, in which males perform better, but are also determined by a host of other abilities that are deployed flexibly depending on the characteristics of the target sounds

Cepstral Peak Prominence-Based Phonation Stabilisation Time as an Indicator of Voice Disorder

This is an extended abstract accepted for oral presentation at the joint conference PEVOC & MAVEBA 2015.A common feature of voice disorders is the impairment of the ability to initiate and sustain adequately periodic vocal fold vibrations. Traditional acoustic approaches that use sustained vowels in which initial/final portions are excluded have been criticised for poor validity and for exclusion of factors that may be a rich source of clinically relevant data e.g. regarding the onset of vocal fold vibration. The aim of this study was to establish if phonation stabilisation time (PST), as determined by cepstal peak prominence (CPP), is useful as an indicator of voice disorders in connected speech. Disordered voices from all groups showed a significantly longer mean PST than normal voices from the same group. The proportion of voiced segments that reached the stable threshold of periodicity were significantly higher for normal voices in all groups. Our results indicate that PST using CPP has potential to differentiate between the normal and disordered voices. The results for the 'below threshold' groups for both male and female are of particular interest. These results suggest that PST using CPP may be a potential indicator of voice disorder in cases where traditional acoustic analysis measures of sustained vowels do not show any pathological findings.caslBaken, R.J. & Orlikoff, R.F., 2000. Clinical measurement of speech and voice, San Diego: Singular Publishing. Crystal, T.H. & House, A.S., 1988. Segmental durations in connected-speech signals: Current results. The journal of the acoustical society of America, 83(4), pp.1553-1573. Gordon, M. & Ladefoged, P., 2001. Phonation types: a cross-linguistic overview. Journal of Phonetics, 29(4), pp.383-406. Maryn, Y. & Roy, N., 2012. Sustained vowels and continuous speech in the auditory-perceptual evaluation of dysphonia severity. Jornal da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia, 24(2), pp.107-12. Schaeffler, F., Beck, J. & Jannetts, S., 2015. Phonation Stabilisation Time as an Indicator of Voice Disorder. ICPhS [submitted]. Takahashi, H. & Koike, Y., 1976. Some perceptual dimensions and acoustical correlates of pathologic voices. Acta oto-laryngologica. Supplementum, 338, pp.1-24.submitted3922submitte

Assessing voice health using smartphones: Bias and random error of acoustic voice parameters captured by different smartphone types

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Jannetts, S., Schaeffler, F., Beck, J. M. & Cowen, S. (2019) Assessing voice health using smartphones: Bias and random error of acoustic voice parameters captured by different smartphone types. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 54 (2), pp. 292-305, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.12457. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.BACKGROUND: Occupational voice problems constitute a serious public health issue with substantial financial and human consequences for society. Modern mobile technologies like smartphones have the potential to enhance approaches to prevention and management of voice problems. This paper addresses an important aspect of smartphone-assisted voice care: the reliability of smartphone-based acoustic analysis for voice health state monitoring. AIM: To assess the reliability of acoustic parameter extraction for a range of commonly used smartphones by comparison with studio recording equipment. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Twenty-two vocally healthy speakers (12 female; 10 male) were recorded producing sustained vowels and connected speech under studio conditions using a high-quality studio microphone and an array of smartphones. For both types of utterances, Bland-Altman-Analysis was used to assess overall reliability for Mean F0; CPPS; Jitter (RAP) and Shimmer %. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Analysis of the systematic and random error indicated significant bias for CPPS across both sustained vowels and passage reading. Analysis of the random error of the devices indicated that that mean F0 and CPPS showed acceptable random error size, while jitter and shimmer random error was judged as problematic. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Confidence in the feasibility of smartphone-based voice assessment is increased by the experimental finding of high levels of reliability for some clinically relevant acoustic parameters, while the use of other parameters is discouraged. We also challenge the practice of using statistical tests (e.g. t-tests) for measurement reliability assessment.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1460698454pubpub

Voice Quality Variation In Scottish Adolescents: Gender Versus Geography

Given the importance of voice quality in signalling personal identity and social group membership, effective control of voice features may become especially important during adolescence, yet this has to be achieved in the context of significant physical changes within the speech production system. Most previous research has focussed on phonation, but this study used Vocal Profile Analysis (VPA) [11] for perceptual analysis of both laryngeal and vocal tract voice settings in Scottish adolescents, in order to identify voice quality markers of gender and geographical background in this age group. VPA analysis was carried out for 76 speakers (31 male; 45 female), drawn from three geographically distinct areas of Scotland. Some of the observed variation in voice quality (especially phonatory settings) may be attributable to physical changes associated with puberty, but other setting adjustments seem more likely to be sociophonetic in origin.Background. Protein-energy wasting is a frequent anddebilitating condition in maintenance dialysis. We randomlytested if an energy-dense, phosphate-restricted,renal-specific oral supplement couldmaintain adequate nutritional intake and prevent malnutrition in maintenancehaemodialysis patients with insufficient intake.Methods. Eighty-six patients were assigned to a standardcare (CTRL) group or were prescribed two 125-ml packsof Renilon 7.5 R daily for 3 months (SUPP). Dietary intake, serum (S) albumin, prealbumin, protein nitrogen appearance(nPNA), C-reactive protein, subjective global assessment(SGA) and quality of life (QOL) were recorded atbaseline and after 3 months.Results. While intention to treat analysis (ITT) did not reveal strong statistically significant changes in dietary intake between groups, per protocol (PP) analysis showed that theSUPP group increased protein (P < 0.01) and energy (P <0.01) intakes. In contrast, protein and energy intakes further deteriorated in the CTRL group (PP). Although there was no difference in serum albumin and prealbumin changesbetween groups, in the total population serum albumin andprealbumin changes were positively associated with the increment in protein intake (r = 0.29, P = 0.01 and r = 0.27, P = 0.02, respectively). The SUPP group did not increase phosphate intake, phosphataemia remained unaffected, and the use of phosphate binders remained stable or decreased. The SUPP group exhibited improved SGA and QOL (P < 0.05).Conclusion. This study shows that providing maintenancehaemodialysis patientswith insufficient intake with a renal-specific oral supplement may prevent deterioration in nutritional indices and QOL without increasing the need forphosphate binders.caslpub3964pub73

Pitching it differently : a comparison of the pitch ranges of German and English speakers

We thank Frank K_gler and his colleagues for the collection of the German data.This paper presents preliminary findings of a largescale systematic comparison of various measures of pitch range for female speakers of Southern Standard British English (SSBE) and Northern Standard German (NSG). The purpose of the study as a whole is to develop the methodology to allow comparisons of pitch range across languages and regional accents, and to determine how they correlate with listeners' perceptual sensitivity to cross-language/accent differences. In this paper we report on how four measures of pitch range in read speech (text, sentences) compare across the two groups of female speakers. Preliminary results show that the measures of the difference between the 90th and 10th percentile (in semitones), and +/- 2 standard deviations around the mean in ST differentiate the groups of speakers in the direction predicted by the stereotypical beliefs described in the literature about German and English speakers. Furthermore, these differences are most obvious in the read text and longer sentences and the effect disappears in sentences of a short duration.casl[1] Boersma, P., Weenink, D. 2006. Praat (Version 4.5). http://www.praat.org. [2] Brown, A., Docherty, G. J. 1995. Phonetic Variation in Dysarthric Speech As a Function of Sampling Task. Eur. J. Disorder. Comm. 30(1), 17-35. [3] Bruce, G. 1982. Textual Aspects of Prosody in Swedish. Phonetica 39, 274-287. [4] De Pijper, J. R. 1983. Modelling British English Intonation. Foris Publications. [5] Dolson, M. 1994. The Pitch of Speech As a Function of Linguistic Community. Music. Percept. 11(3), 321-331. [6] Eckert, H., Laver, J. 1994. Menschen und ihre Stimmen: Aspekte der vokalen Kommunikation. Weinheim: Psychologie Verlags Union. [7] Estebas-Vilaplana, E. 2000. Peak F0 Downtrends in Central Catalan Neutral Declaratives. Speech, Hearing and Language: work in progress. London, 16- 41. [8] Gibbon, D. 1998. German Intonation. In: Hirst, D. J., Di Christo, A. (eds), Intonation Systems: A Survey of Twenty Languages, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 78-95. [9] Gilles, P., Peters, J. 2004. Regional Variation in Intonation. T_bingen: Niemeyer Verlag. [10] Grabe, E., Post, B., Nolan, F., Farrar, K. 2000. Pitch Accent Realization in Four Varieties of British English. J. Phonetics 28(2), 161-185. [11] Ladd, D. R. 1988. Declination Reset and the Hierarchical Organization of Utterances. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84(2), 530-544. [12] Ladd, D. R., Terken, J. 1995. Modelling Intra- and Inter-Speaker Pitch Range Variation. Proc.of ICPhS. Stockholm, 386-389. [13] Liberman, M., Pierrehumbert, J. 1984. Intonational Invariance Under Changes in Pitch Range and Length. In: Aronoff, M., Oehrle, R., Kelley, F., Stephens, B. W. (eds), Language Sound Structure, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 157-233. [14] Mennen, I. 2007. Phonological and Phonetic Influences in Non-Native Intonation. In: Trouvain, J., Gut, U. (eds), Non-Native Prosody: Phonetic Descriptions and Teaching Practice, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. [15] Prieto, P., Shih, C., Nibert, H. 2007. Pitch Downtrend in Spanish. J. Phonetics 24(4), 445-473. [16] Thorsen, N. 1983. Standard Danish Sentence Intonation - Phonetic Data and Their Representation. Folia Linguist. 17, 187-220. [17] Ulbrich, C. 2006. Pitch Range Is Not Pitch Range. Proc.Speech Prosody 2006. Dresden. [18] van Bezooijen, R. 1995. Sociocultural Aspects of Pitch Differences Between Japanese and Dutch Women. Lang. Speech 38, 253-265.pub42pu

Phonation stabilisation time as an indicator of voice disorder

There is increasing emphasis on use of connected speech for acoustic analysis of voice disorder, but the differential impact of disorder on initiation, maintenance and termination of phonation has received little attention. This study introduces a new measure of dynamic changes at onset of phonation during connected speech, phonation stabilisation time (PST), and compares this measure with conventional analysis of sustained vowels. Voice samples obtained from the KayPENTAX Disordered Voice Database were analysed (202 females, 128 males) including 'below threshold' voices where there was a clinical diagnosis but acoustic parameters for sustained vowels were within the normal range. Female disordered voices showed significantly longer PST duration than normal voices, including those in the 'below threshold' group. Overall differences for male voices were also significant. Results suggest that, at least for females, PST measurement from connected speech could provide a more sensitive indicator of disorder than traditional analysis of sustained vowels.Discussions on the use of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) in developing countries have in the past focused on the limitations caused by the high cost of the drugs and by the lack of health system capacity to adequately deliver and make use of them (Colebunders et al. 2000; The New York Times 2001). An additional concern has been the risk of increasing resistance to ARVs if there were widespread inappropriate administration and lack of monitoring (Harries et al. 2001). Lately, however, including at the 2002 International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, there have been stronger calls for scaling up access to ARVs with less attention paid to these concerns and limitations, as expressed by Lange (2002): 'If we can get cold Coca-Cola and beer to every remote corner of Africa, it should not be impossible to do the same with drugs'.caslpub3940pub33

Reliability of clinical voice parameters captured with smartphones – measurements of added noise and spectral tilt

Proceedings of INTERSPEECHSmartphones have become powerful tools for data capture due to their computational power, internet connectivity, high quality sensors and user-friendly interfaces. This also makes them attractive for the recording of voice data that can be analysed for clinical or other voice health purposes. This however requires detailed assessment of the reliability of voice parameters extracted from smartphone recordings. In a previous study we analysed reliability of measures of periodicity and periodicity deviation, with very mixed results across parameters. In the present study we extended this analysis to measures of added noise and spectral tilt. We analysed systematic and random error for six frequently used acoustic parameters in clinical acoustic voice quality analysis. 22 speakers recorded sustained [a] and a short passage with a studio microphone and four popular smartphones simultaneously. Acoustic parameters were extracted with Praat and smartphone recordings were compared to the studio microphone. Results indicate a small systematic error for almost all parameters and smartphones. Random errors differed substantially between parameters. Our results suggest that extraction of acoustic voice parameters with mobile phones is not without problems and different parameters show substantial differences in reliability. Careful individual assessment of parameters is therefore recommended before use in practice.http://dx.doi.org/10.21437/Interspeech.2019-2910pubpu

Secure account-based data capture with smartphones – preliminary results from a study of articulatory precision in clinical depression

Schaeffler, Felix - ORCID 0000-0002-2764-7635 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2764-7635Jannetts, Stephen - ORCID 0000-0003-1084-8745 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1084-8745Smartphone technology is continuously being updated through software and hardware changes. At present, a limited number of studies have been undertaken to assess the impact of these changes on data collection for linguistic research. This paper discusses the potential of smartphones to gather reliable recordings, along with ethical considerations for storing additional personal information when working in other contexts (i.e. healthcare settings). A pilot study was undertaken using the FitvoiceTM account-based application to analyse articulatory proficiency in depressed and healthy participants. Results suggest that phonetic differences exist between these groups in terms of plosive production, and that smartphones are capable of adequately recording these minute aspects of the speech signal for analysis.https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2019-00157pubpubs