Discriminant capacity of acoustic, perceptual, and vocal self: the effects of vocal demands.

OBJECTIVES

To analyze the discrimination ability of acoustic, auditory parameters, and perception of vocal effort during professional and social voice use, and the correlations of these parameters with the vocal demands.

STUDY

DESIGN

Longitudinal study.

METHODS

Seventy-three subjects participated in the study: 31 females aged from 28 to 65 years (G1; professional voice users) and 42 females aged from 31 to 59 years (G2, social voice users; ). All the subjects were subjected to acoustic voice analysis including F0 median, semiamplitude interquartile, quantile 99.5%, and skewness; first F0 derivate mean, standard deviation (SD), and skewness; intensity skewness; spectral slope mean, SD, and skewness; long-term average spectrum-frequency SD, perceptual parameters (GRBASI scale), and self-perception of vocal effort, before and after 2 hours and 30 minutes of voice use. Statistical analyses were completed via multivariate discriminant analysis and canonical correlation analysis.

RESULTS

Discriminant analysis of acoustic, perceptual, and self-rating variables and analysis of the grouped parameters did not differentiate the samples before and after vocal use. Higher levels of canonical correlation were found for the professional voice group after voice use, with a correlation between perceptual analysis and acoustic measures.

CONCLUSIONS

The current measures could not discriminate the differences of the type of vocal demands, professional or social.