[Effects of different tasks on determination of the speaking fundamental frequency]

The aims of the study were to investigate the effects of different tasks on determination of the speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) using acoustic measurements and to formulate a tentative proposal based on the results of the current and other studies on this topic.

A total of 36 normophonic German subjects were examined. Nine different tasks commonly used in science and in clinical work for determination of the SFF were used.

The maximum deviation in F0 across all methods was 18 Hz in women and 8 Hz in men. Women revealed significantly lower F0 values in spontaneous speech, reading, counting from both 1-10 and 1-60, as well as in the vowel [i:] and the "um Hm" utterances, when compared with the vowel [a:] using the procedure of Awan (p < 0.05). Furthermore, significantly lower F0 values were found in the reading and the picture storytelling task (p < 0.05). Men revealed significantly higher F0 values in spontaneous speech, reading and the picture storytelling task in comparison to the vowel [a:] and the counting tasks (p < 0.05).

In line with findings of other recent studies, this study confirms the validity of the proposal that there is a significant difference in F0 values as it pertains to vowels, counting, and continuous speech. Thus, it follows that continuous speech should be used for determining the SFF.