Clinical Utility of CAPE-V Sentences for Determination of Speaking Fundamental Frequency

Sentence stimuli from the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) were compared with standard speaking fundamental frequency (SF0) tasks to establish clinical utility of the sentence stimuli for standardized assessment of SF0.

Using a within-participant repeated measures design, 60 consented participants (30 males and 30 females) completed the study.

Participants provided 10 acoustic samples (six CAPE-V sentences and four additional standard tasks), counterbalanced for order effect, for determining SF0. A within-participant repeated measures analysis of variance was used in a 2 (males vs females) by 11 (10 tasks and CAPE-V sentence average) design to determine significant differences in SF0 with significance set at α < .05.

Significant differences were found for the CAPE-V sentences "Peter will keep at the peak" and "How hard did he hit him" with seven of the remaining tasks and the CAPE-V average determined to be statistically similar in female participants. No significant differences were found for male participants.

Findings from this study indicate that taken individually, four of the CAPE-V sentences and the average of the six CAPE-V sentences may be used instead of longer tasks to determine SF0 in nonvoice-disordered individuals. This may streamline clinical service by using the CAPE-V sentences for both standardized acoustic and perceptual voice assessments.