Predicting Impressions of Speakers from Voice Quality: Acoustic and Perceptual Measures

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of an acoustic measure of speech based on the Long-Term Average Spectrum (LTAS), expert ratings of five voice qualities (breathy, creaky, nasal, tense, and whispery voices), and naive ratings of status and solidarity. Six male and six female speakers recorded a standard passage in the five voice types; these recordings were then analysed acoustically using the LTAS, judged by expert coders, and rated by undergraduate students. A two-stage path analysis revealed significant prediction from the LTAS to expert ratings on all voice qualities except nasality. In addition, creaky, nasal, and tense voices were negatively related to solidarity judgements, and nasal voice was negatively related to status judgements. These results point to the usefulness of the LTAS in measuring voice quality, as well as to the importance of perceptual judgements in connecting physical measures of the voice to impressions of speakers. Finally, the results suggest that the ‘ideal’ voice may be characterised by only small amounts of all these voice qualities.