Listeners' attitudes towards voice disorders: An interaction between auditory and visual stimuli

Area of Science:

• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Psychology
• Social Perception

Background:

• Individuals with dysphonia, a condition affecting vocal quality, often face negative social judgments.
• Listener attitudes towards dysphonic speakers are influenced by vocal characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To correlate vocal quality measures (auditory-perceptual and objective) with listener attitudes towards dysphonic and non-dysphonic speakers.
• To determine if listener attitudes differ based on stimulus type: auditory-only (A), auditory-visual (AV), or visual-only (V).

Main Methods:

• Ten untrained judges rated stimuli from 14 speakers (10 dysphonic, 4 non-dysphonic).
• Evaluated cognitive, voice characteristic, and behavioral attitudes.
• Correlations analyzed using Pearson and Spearman coefficients; differences examined via Linear Mixed Models (LMM).

Main Results:

• Significant correlations found between vocal quality measures and attitudes for auditory and auditory-visual stimuli, with increased negativity linked to dysphonia severity.
• Fewer significant correlations were observed for auditory-visual stimuli compared to auditory-only.
• No significant correlations were found for visual-only stimuli.

Conclusions:

• Listeners generally exhibit more negative attitudes towards individuals with dysphonia.
• Visual cues appear to positively influence judges' cognitive and behavioral attitudes towards dysphonic speakers.
• Further research is recommended to explore the impact of visual information on social perception of dysphonia.