Perception of pathological voice quality is essential in clinical voice evaluation and validation of objective measures of voice. Patients and their families decide whether treatment is successful based largely on whether the patient sounds better. Similarly, clinicians make many decisions about managing speech and voice disorders based upon on perceptual judgments. However, these """"""""subjective"""""""" measures of voice quality are not highly regarded as either clinical or research tools, because of inherent problems with inter- and intrajudge reliability, they are considered to lack objectivity, and there is no accepted set of perceptual scales used by clinicians. This apparent contradiction has resulted from a lack of cogent research into the sources of variability in voice quality judgments. The proposed research addresses the fundamental questions of what vocal qualities to measure and how to measure them by examining how each component of the """"""""speech chain"""""""" contributes error to voice quality ratings. What voice qualities are perceptually real and perceptually important will be determined using multidimensional scaling and factor analytic techniques to examine the perceptual characteristics of large sets of pathological male and female voices. The influence of type, of rating task, rating context, and clinical experience on voice ratings will also be examined. Finally, the results of these studies will be used to test an """"""""anchored"""""""" voice rating protocol that is resistant to the error resulting from these effects. Evaluating pathological voices using such a protocol is analogous to measuring size with a ruler, as compared to estimation by eye or memory. The long-term goal is to maximize clinical rating reliability by identifying, investigating, and ultimately controlling sources of variability in voice quality ratings. Once this goal is achieved, standardization of voice rating procedures may be achievable. Considering the key role of voice quality perception in both clinical and research practices, the need for increased understanding and reliability, and eventual standardization in this field cannot be overstated.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DC001797-02
Application #
2126825
Study Section
Sensory Disorders and Language Study Section (CMS)
Project Start
1992-12-01
Project End
1995-11-30
Budget Start
1993-12-01
Budget End
1994-11-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Surgery
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
119132785
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095
Zhang, Zhaoyan (2018) Vocal instabilities in a three-dimensional body-cover phonation model. J Acoust Soc Am 144:1216
Park, Soo Jin; Yeung, Gary; Vesselinova, Neda et al. (2018) Towards understanding speaker discrimination abilities in humans and machines for text-independent short utterances of different speech styles. J Acoust Soc Am 144:375
Wu, Liang; Zhang, Zhaoyan (2017) A Computational Study of Vocal Fold Dehydration During Phonation. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 64:2938-2948
Zhang, Zhaoyan (2017) Effect of vocal fold stiffness on voice production in a three-dimensional body-cover phonation model. J Acoust Soc Am 142:2311
Gerratt, Bruce R; Kreiman, Jody; Garellek, Marc (2016) Comparing Measures of Voice Quality From Sustained Phonation and Continuous Speech. J Speech Lang Hear Res 59:994-1001
Signorello, Rosario; Zhang, Zhaoyan; Gerratt, Bruce et al. (2016) Impact of Vocal Tract Resonance on the Perception of Voice Quality Changes Caused by Varying Vocal Fold Stiffness. Acta Acust United Acust 102:209-213
Kreiman, Jody (2016) On Peer Review. J Speech Lang Hear Res 59:480-3
Garellek, Marc; Samlan, Robin; Gerratt, Bruce R et al. (2016) Modeling the voice source in terms of spectral slopes. J Acoust Soc Am 139:1404-10
Bagha, Ashok K; Modak, S V (2015) Structural sensing of interior sound for active control of noise in structural-acoustic cavities. J Acoust Soc Am 138:11-21
Titze, Ingo R; Baken, Ronald J; Bozeman, Kenneth W et al. (2015) Toward a consensus on symbolic notation of harmonics, resonances, and formants in vocalization. J Acoust Soc Am 137:3005-7

Showing the most recent 10 out of 35 publications