Summary
Objective
Relative fundamental frequency (RFF) has been investigated as a possible acoustic
measure to assess laryngeal tension. This study aimed to identify possible factors
in RFF stimuli (stress type, vowel identity, baseline f0, and loudness) that might also affect RFF values.
Methods
Fifteen speakers with healthy voices produced short RFF stimuli (vowel-/f/-vowel;
eg, /ɑfɑ/) in different conditions. They produced the stimuli with three different
stress types and four different vowels. Participants also produced stimuli in three
different baseline f0 conditions and three different loudness conditions. The mean RFF and within- and
between-subject standard deviation (SD) of RFF were estimated for each stimuli condition.
Results
Stress type had a statistically significant effect on RFF means and within-subject
SDs with a large effect size (P < 0.001). A significant but small effect of vowel identity was observed: onset 1
RFF values from /ɑ/ were higher than onset 1 RFF values from /u/ (P < 0.01). Baseline f0 had a significant effect on RFF values with a medium effect size (P < 0.05). Loudness did not have any significant effect on RFF, but onset 1 RFF values
produced with soft voice showed an unexpectedly high between-subject SD.
Conclusions
This evidence suggests that stress type is the most important factor to consider in
RFF measurement. We also conclude that RFF may be somewhat resistant to vowel variation
and small differences in baseline f0 and loudness, which may be beneficial in clinical settings.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 02, 2018
Accepted:
April 4,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
