B Barsties1. 1. Faculty of Health Care, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Utrecht, Niederlande. ben.barsties@t-online.de
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The aims of the study were to investigate the effects of different tasks on determination of the speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) using acoustic measurements and to formulate a tentative proposal based on the results of the current and other studies on this topic. METHODS: A total of 36 normophonic German subjects were examined. Nine different tasks commonly used in science and in clinical work for determination of the SFF were used. RESULTS: The maximum deviation in F0 across all methods was 18 Hz in women and 8 Hz in men. Women revealed significantly lower F0 values in spontaneous speech, reading, counting from both 1-10 and 1-60, as well as in the vowel [i:] and the "um Hm" utterances, when compared with the vowel [a:] using the procedure of Awan (p < 0.05). Furthermore, significantly lower F0 values were found in the reading and the picture storytelling task (p < 0.05). Men revealed significantly higher F0 values in spontaneous speech, reading and the picture storytelling task in comparison to the vowel [a:] and the counting tasks (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In line with findings of other recent studies, this study confirms the validity of the proposal that there is a significant difference in F0 values as it pertains to vowels, counting, and continuous speech. Thus, it follows that continuous speech should be used for determining the SFF.
BACKGROUND: The aims of the study were to investigate the effects of different tasks on determination of the speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) using acoustic measurements and to formulate a tentative proposal based on the results of the current and other studies on this topic. METHODS: A total of 36 normophonic German subjects were examined. Nine different tasks commonly used in science and in clinical work for determination of the SFF were used. RESULTS: The maximum deviation in F0 across all methods was 18 Hz in women and 8 Hz in men. Women revealed significantly lower F0 values in spontaneous speech, reading, counting from both 1-10 and 1-60, as well as in the vowel [i:] and the "um Hm" utterances, when compared with the vowel [a:] using the procedure of Awan (p < 0.05). Furthermore, significantly lower F0 values were found in the reading and the picture storytelling task (p < 0.05). Men revealed significantly higher F0 values in spontaneous speech, reading and the picture storytelling task in comparison to the vowel [a:] and the counting tasks (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In line with findings of other recent studies, this study confirms the validity of the proposal that there is a significant difference in F0 values as it pertains to vowels, counting, and continuous speech. Thus, it follows that continuous speech should be used for determining the SFF.