Summary
Twenty-three female Speech Communication Disorders (SCD) graduate students rated the
desirability of 25 adjectives used to describe perceived speaker's affect (including
attitude, emotion, etc). A three-point weighted scale—desirable = 3, in-between = 2,
and undesirable = 1—was used and a “desirability score” was calculated for each of
these adjectives. Afterward, students were asked to use these adjectives to describe
the perceived communication affect of female speakers with voices characterized by
“vocal fry” as well as seven other vocal qualities (rough, breathy, strained, loud,
high pitch, low pitch, and soft/weak). Proficiency of the students in identification
of each of these eight voice qualities was determined before the survey. A desirability
score for each voice quality, with a focus on vocal fry, was calculated by averaging
the sum of the weighted counts for each adjective used to describe that vocal quality.
Results
Ten adjectives were rated as desirable (eg, cool), two were rated as in-between (eg,
nonaggressive), and 13 were rated as undesirable (eg, vain). Thirty-two percent used
only undesirable adjectives to describe vocal fry; 64% used a mixture of desirable,
in-between, and undesirable; and 5% used only desirable adjectives and one in-between
adjective. The relative order of the desirability scores of the vocal qualities was
low pitch (2.13), high pitch (2.11), loud (1.89), vocal fry (1.82), breathy (1.77),
soft/weak (1.68), rough (1.46), and strained (1.08). A vocal quality profile for each
adjective was created. Vocal fry was the primary vocal quality associated with the
adjectives vain (56%), apathetic/disinterested (48%), sleepy (38%), relaxed/chill
(38%), and bored/unengaged (36%).
Conclusions
SCD graduate student participants rated the desirability of 25 adjectives used to
describe the perceived speaker's affect (including attitude, emotion, etc), and a
“desirability score” was calculated for each. Afterward, they used these adjectives
to describe the perceived communication affect of female speakers with voices characterized
by vocal fry. Most participants were undecided, 30% perceived it as undesirable, and
only 5% perceived it as desirable. The desirability scoring system and the adjectives
used in this study add to the growing literature focusing on how different vocal qualities
influence the listener's perception of the speaker's affect.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 23, 2018
Accepted:
March 13,
2018
Footnotes
This article was presented at the Voice Foundation 45th Annual Symposium: Care of the Professional Voice in Philadelphia, PA, June 4, 2016.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of The Voice Foundation.
