Effect of Task Type on Speaking Fundamental Frequency in Women

Abstract

Speaking fundamental frequency (SF0) is an acoustic measure that is frequently used by voice clinicians to assess the severity of vocal pathology and to monitor progress in treatment. However, there is little agreement on what task should be used to measure SF0, and various tasks are commonly used. Twenty-one young women with no vocal pathology were recorded performing 6 tasks commonly used to assess SF0. A significant difference in SF0 was found among tasks. The reading passage and spontaneous speech tasks were significantly different than the counting from 1-10 task, sustained /a/, sustained /i/ after counting 1-3 task, and the 20th percentile of the F0 range. These results support development of procedural standards for acoustic measurement of voice.