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Exploratory Analysis of the Convergence Between Acoustic Measures and Qualitative Spectrographic Analysis Following
Denis de Jesus Batista1, Aline Santos da Conceição2
1Universidade Federal da Paraíba, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil; The University of Sydney Voice Lab supported by the Dr Liang Voice Program, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Objectives:
This study aims to explore the convergence between objective acoustic measures and qualitative spectrographic analysis in the evaluation of the effects of an expressiveness-oriented training program in journalism students.
Methods:
An exploratory and pre-post intervention study was conducted with eight journalism students with perceptually healthy voices who were engaged in university radio broadcasting. Participants completed an oral communication expressiveness training program consisting of eight sessions. Speech samples comprised the reading of a standardized informative text. Objective acoustic analysis included minimum and maximum fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency standard deviation, mean intensity, and cepstral peak prominence (CPP). Qualitative spectrographic analysis was performed by two speech-language pathologists (SLPs) with expertise in voice, blinded to the recording moment, based on criteria encompassing five domains: harmonic distribution, presence of subharmonics, spectral noise, pitch contour instability, and intensity contour instability.
Results:
Following the training program, significant changes were observed in minimum and maximum fundamental frequency, intensity, and CPP. Inter-rater agreement varied across spectrographic domains, with higher agreement observed for harmonic distribution and pitch contour instability. Given this variability, the description of pre post changes was based on the ratings of the evaluator who demonstrated greater overall consistency and higher agreement in domains considered more sensitive to vocal expressiveness. Using this approach, improvement in pitch contour instability was observed in 50% of the participants after the training.
Conclusions:
The findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting potential coherence between changes in objective acoustic parameters and qualitative spectrographic organization. However, the absence of a control group, small sample size, and methodological limitations preclude definitive conclusions. Further research with larger samples and validated protocols is required.
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