Self-perception of speaking pitch levels

Area of Science:

• Acoustic Phonetics
• Speech Perception
• Voice Disorders

Background:

• Existing literature highlights discrepancies between how speakers and listeners perceive speaking pitch.
• Specific characteristics of these self-perception differences in speaking pitch remain underexplored.
• Understanding self-perception of vocal characteristics is crucial for voice analysis and therapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the self-perception of speaking pitch levels in young adult males.
• To compare self-judgments of live and recorded speech with listener judgments and objective fundamental frequency (f0) measures.
• To identify patterns in how individuals perceive their own vocal pitch in different listening conditions.

Main Methods:

• Eleven young adult males participated as both speakers and listeners.
• Subjects provided live self-judgments of their speaking pitch during vocalization.
• Subjects also judged their own recorded voices and these judgments were compared to listener rankings and fundamental frequency (f0) analysis.

Main Results:

• Self-judgments of recorded voices closely matched listener perceptions and fundamental frequency (f0) rankings.
• During live speaking, subjects tended to avoid extreme self-rankings, favoring an average pitch level.
• This suggests a difference in self-perception accuracy between immediate vocalization and listening to recordings.

Conclusions:

• Individuals' self-perception of their recorded speaking pitch aligns with objective measures and external listener judgments.
• Live self-perception of pitch is modulated, with speakers avoiding extreme self-assessments.
• These findings have potential clinical implications for voice therapy and understanding voice disorders.