Perceptual features of speech for males in four perceived age decades
David E. Hartman, Jeffrey L. Danhauer · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1976
Spontaneous speech samples of 46 male speakers between the ages of 25 and 70 years were played to 40 untrained listeners who estimated the speakers’ ages. Samples which showed agreement among untrained listeners were played to 20 trained listeners who described the perceptual features of the given perceived ages via a closed-response schema. Results showed characteristic perceptual features for four perceived age decades which could be classified according to pitch, rate of speech, quality, and articulation. The features were discussed in light of earlier findings. The features and their weightings by the listeners were derived from an a posteriori schema and samples of spontaneous speech. It was concluded that these features have perceptual importance and should be useful in establishing criteria for defining ’’normal’’ aging speech, planning management strategies for individuals with speech deviances, and in speaker recognition research. Subject Classification: [43]70.30, [43]70.35.