Perceived gender and client satisfaction in transgender voice work: comparing self and listener rating scales across a training program

Background/Aim: Scales used to collect perceptual ratings related to a speaker’s gender are widely used in gender affirming voice training for trans individuals. Such scales may be used as outcome measures to gain insight into whether training has helped clients meet personal goals related to gender expression. These scales are also widely used in general research investigating the relationship between vocal characteristics and perceptions of speaker gender. However, past studies in these areas have varied in the terminology used to label rating scales and the impact of this variation is currently unknown. Additionally, research has not yet fully explored the relationship between self- and listener-ratings of trans participant voices and trans participant satisfaction with voice, and whether or not these relationships change after trans participants undertake gender affirming voice training. This research paper aimed to explore these relationships and address these research gaps. Methods: A group of 34 trans participants were asked to rate their voices before and after participating in gender affirming voice training. Trans participant voice samples from before and after training were also presented to a group of 25 listeners for rating. Perceptual ratings were made on two Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) with anchors ‘very feminine/very masculine’ and ‘very female/very male’. Trans participants also rated their satisfaction with their current voice on a VAS with anchors ‘very satisfied/very unsatisfied’. Correlation coefficients were calculated to investigate the relationship between collected ratings. Results: Differences in scale labels were found to have minimal impact on ratings made by both trans participants and listeners. Trans participant self-ratings were found to correlate with listener ratings, but this correlation was not strong Trans participant self-ratings had a consistently stronger relationship with their self-rated vocal satisfaction. The study contributed new findings that these differences may be more pronounced after trans participants have completed voice training. Discussion/conclusion: This study suggests that results from past studies that have used differently labelled scales to collect ratings related to gender perception based on voice are suitable to compare. This study also discusses the implications reported differences between trans participant self-ratings and listener ratings may have for research and clinical practice.

L2-ruotsin lausepainon sanallinen kuvaaminen – menetelmällisiä käänteitä ääntämisen arviointiin

In this study, we explore how sentence stress is described in pronunciation assessment. The data, also used in two previous studies, consist of listener ratings of Finnish-speaking learners’ pronunciation in read-aloud and free speech. The listeners rated the speakers’ pronunciation on segmental and suprasegmental level on a numeric scale and verbally. Typical descriptions of sentence stress in the data focus on specific error categories and general comments. The sentence stresses that were assessed with the lowest ratings were often described in more detail than those with higher ratings. According to the raters’ comments, the sentence stresses that got the lowest ratings typically occurred too often or not often enough. The sentence stresses with the highest ratings were also described with positive comments. There were differences between the rater groups when it comes to the amount of comments and the proportion of specific and general comments. Differences between read-aloud and free speech concerned the proportion of general comments and the frequency of too many stressed words. The results can be utilized in pronunciation assessment, as assessing pronunciation is often considered challenging.

Universality and diversity in human song

What is universal about music, and what varies? We built a corpus of ethnographic text on musical behavior from a representative sample of the world’s societies, as well as a discography of audio recordings. The ethnographic corpus reveals that music (including songs with words) appears in every society observed; that music varies along three dimensions (formality, arousal, religiosity), more within societies than across them; and that music is associated with certain behavioral contexts such as infant care, healing, dance, and love. The discography—analyzed through machine summaries, amateur and expert listener ratings, and manual transcriptions—reveals that acoustic features of songs predict their primary behavioral context; that tonality is widespread, perhaps universal; that music varies in rhythmic and melodic complexity; and that elements of melodies and rhythms found worldwide follow power laws.

Continuous Vocal Fry Simulated in Laboratory Subjects: A Preliminary Report on Voice Production and Listener Ratings

Purpose Vocal fry is prevalent in everyday speech. However, whether the use of vocal fry is detrimental to voice production is unclear. This preliminary study assessed the effects of using continuous vocal fry on voice production measures and listener ratings. Method Ten healthy individuals (equal male and female, mean age = 22.4 years) completed 2 counterbalanced sessions. In each session, participants read in continuous vocal fry or habitual voice quality for 30 min at a comfortable intensity. Continuous vocal fry was simulated. Phonation threshold pressure (PTP 10 and PTP 20 ), cepstral peak prominence, and vocal effort ratings were obtained before and after the production of each voice quality. Next, 10 inexperienced listeners (equal male and female, mean age = 24.1 years) used visual analog scales to rate paired samples of continuous vocal fry and habitual voice quality for naturalness, employability, and amount of listener concentration. Results PTP 10 and vocal effort ratings increased after 30 min of continuous vocal fry. Inexperienced listeners rated continuous vocal fry more negatively than the habitual voice quality. Conclusions Thirty minutes of simulated, continuous vocal fry worsened some voice measures when compared with a habitual voice quality. Samples of continuous vocal fry were rated as significantly less employable, less natural, and requiring greater listener concentration as compared with samples of habitual voice quality. Future studies should include habitual users of vocal fry to investigate speech stimulability and adaptation with cueing to further understand pathogenesis of vocal fry.

Perception of isolated chords: Examining frequency of occurrence, instrumental timbre, acoustic descriptors and musical training

This study investigated the perception of isolated chords using a combination of experimental manipulation and exploratory analysis. Twelve types of chord (five triads and seven tetrads) were presented in two instrumental timbres (piano and organ) to listeners who rated the chords for consonance, pleasantness, stability and relaxation. Listener ratings varied by chord, by timbre, and according to musical expertise, and revealed that musicians distinguished consonance from the other variables in a way that other listeners did not. To further explain the data, a principal component analysis and linear regression examined three potential predictors of the listener ratings. First, each chord’s frequency of occurrence was obtained by counting its appearances in selected works of music. Second, listeners rated their familiarity with the instrumental timbre in which the chord was played. Third, chords were described using a set of acoustic features derived using the Timbre Toolbox and MIR Toolbox. Results of the study indicated that listeners’ ratings of both consonance and stability were influenced by the degree of musical training and knowledge of tonal hierarchy. Listeners’ ratings of pleasantness and relaxation, on the other hand, depended more on the instrumental timbre and other acoustic descriptions of the chord.

Assessing Vowel Centralization in Dysarthria: A Comparison of Methods

Purpose The strength of the relationship between vowel centralization measures and perceptual ratings of dysarthria severity has varied considerably across reports. This article evaluates methods of acoustic-perceptual analysis to determine whether procedural changes can strengthen the association between these measures. Method Sixty-one speakers (17 healthy individuals and 44 speakers with dysarthria) read a standard passage. To obtain acoustic data, 2 points of formant extraction (midpoint and articulatory point) and 2 frequency measures (Hz and Bark) were trialed. Both vowel space area and an adapted formant centralization ratio were calculated using first and second formants of speakers' corner vowels. Twenty-eight listeners rated speech samples using different prompts: one with a focus on intelligibility, the other on speech precision. Results Perceptually, listener ratings of speech precision provided the best index of acoustic change. Acoustically, the combined use of an articulatory-based formant extraction point, Bark frequency units, and the formant centralization ratio was most effective in explaining perceptual ratings. This combination of procedures resulted in an increase of 17% to 27% explained variance between measures. Conclusions The procedures researchers use to assess articulatory impairment can significantly alter the strength of relationship between acoustic and perceptual measures. Procedures that maximize this relationship are recommended.