Dissimilarity and the Classification of Female Singing Voices: A Preliminary Study

The interaction of formant frequency and pitch in the perception of voice category and jaw opening in female singers

“…As in other studies, 3,9,10 this research has shown that the perception of voice category is affected by both formant frequency and pitch when mean data are considered. However, it should be noted that there is a great deal of variability in experienced listener response; some experienced listeners will likely be able to perceive voice categories independent of pitch, and others will not.…”

“…Based on previous research, 3,9,10 it was hypothesized that formant pattern and pitch would interact in the perception of voice category. To test this hypothesis, a 5 × 7 repeated measures ANOVA was performed to determine the effects of formant pattern and pitch on the perception of voice category.…”

“…All patterns are perceived as highly soprano at A5, which suggests that the widely spaced harmonics at this pitch do not provide enough acoustic information to separate voices into categories, a finding that is supported by previous research. 10,20 The hypothesis that the mezzo-soprano/ soprano cross-over point varies inversely with formant pattern was tested using the area under the curve procedure as described above. The area under the curve was calculated for each formant pattern for each participant.…”

“…In fact, there is likely an interaction between formant frequency and pitch in the perception of voice categories. Erickson 10 found that spectral centroid differentiated voice categories in a dissimilarity experiment at pitches below A5, and yet when listeners were asked to categorize these same stimuli as mezzo-soprano or soprano, formant frequency and pitch interacted to affect these judgments ( Figure 1). Likewise, the perception of male voice categories appears to be affected by both formant frequency and pitch.…”

“…A 2 × 2 × 6 repeated measures ANOVA was performed to test the effects of listener experience, formant pattern, and pitch on the perception of jaw position. The highest pitch, A5, was not included in the analysis because in experiments presenting isolated sounds, perception of categorical differences at this pitch are typically absent regardless of listener experience 10. 20 Significant effects were found for listener experience [F(1,28) ϭ 5.887, p ϭ 0.022], pattern [F(1,28) ϭ 35.834, p Ͻ 0.001], pitch [F(5,140) ϭ 2.718, p ϭ 0.022], and the interaction between pitch and listener experience [F(5,140) ϭ 2.616, p Ͻ 0.027].The interaction between pitch and listener experience can further be understood by visually inspectingFigure 7.…”