The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative importance of the speaker’s laryngeal fundamental frequency and vocal tract resonance characteristics in speaker sex identification tasks. Six sustained isolated vowels (/i, -, -, a, o, u/) were recorded by 20 speakers, 10 males and 10 females, in a normal and whispered manner. A total of three master tapes (voiced, whispered, and filtered) were constructed from these recordings. The filtered tape involved 255 Hz low-pass filtering of the voiced tape. The tapes were played to 15 listeners for speaker sex identification judgments and confidence ratings of their evaluations. Results of their judgments indicate that, of the 1800 identifications made for each tape (20 speakers × 6 vowels × 15 listeners), 96% were correct for the voiced tape, 91% were correct for the filtered tape, and 75% were correct for the whispered tape. Moreover, the listeners were most confident in their judgments on the voiced tape, followed by the filtered tape, and showed the least amount of confidence on the whispered tape. These findings indicate that the laryngeal fundamental frequency appears to be a more important acoustic cue in speaker sex identification tasks than the resonance characteristics of the speaker. Subject Classification: [43]70.30.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship among speakers' heights, weights, body surface areas, and speaking fundamental frequencies. The recordings of 30 speakers' readings of a standard prose passage were analyzed by means of the Fundamental Frequency Indicator (FFI) to obtain their speaking fundamental frequency characteristics. The speakers' heights and weights were obtained by means of standard measurement procuedures, and their body surface areas were calculated. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, computed separately for men and women, indicated that speakers' heights, weights, and body surface areas were not significantly correlated with their speaking fundamental frequencies; female speakers showed a slight negative correlation while male speakers showed a low, positive trend. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relative importance of the speaker's laryngeal fundamental and vocal-tract resonance characteristics in speaker sex identification tasks. Six sustained isolated vowels (/i, ε æ, a, o, u/) were recorded by 20 speakers, 10 males and 10 females, in a normal (voiced) and whispered manner. A total of three master tapes were constructed from these recordings, representing the three experimental conditions in the study: voiced, whispered, and filtered. The filtered tape was constructed from the voiced recordings by playing the voiced tape through a variable filter with a 255-Hz low-pass cutoff setting. Each tape contained excised 500-msec segments of all speakers' six vowel productions in a randomized order. The tapes were played to 15 listeners under headphones for speaker sex identification judgments and confidence ratings of their evaluations based on a seven-point scale, in which a rating of 1 represented a guess and 7 indicated complete confidence in their decisions. Results of their judgments indicate that, of the 1800 identifications made for each tape (20 speakers × 6 vowels × 15 listeners), 95% were correct for the voiced tape, 93% were correct for the filtered tape, and 75% were correct for the whispered tape. Moreover, the listeners were more confident in their Judgments on the voiced and filtered tape (mean confidence ratings of 5.6 and 5.4, respectively) than they were on the whispered tape (mean confidence rating of 3.0). These findings indicate, contrary to some previous research, that the laryngeal fundamental appears to be a more important acoustic cue in speaker sex-identification tasks than the resonance characteristics of the speaker. Implications of these findings and comparisons with previous research are discussed.

Despite their use for many years and their popularity among some SLPs for the treatment of a wide variety of speech problems in children and adults, NSOMTs are controversial because sufficient evidence does not exist to support their effectiveness in improving speech. Moreover, limited evidence exists for the use of NSOMTs to facilitate nonspeech activities. Therefore, the available evidence does not support the continued use of NSOMTs as a standard treatment and they should be excluded from use as a mainstream treatment until there are further data. SLPs should consider the principles of EBP in making decisions about NSOMTs.

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