Poster Session #1: UC South Ballroom

MEASURING VOCAL JITTER: CONTINUOUS SPEECH VS SUSTAINED VOWELS

Author Information

Mollie Driscoll

Presentation Type

Poster

Faculty Mentor’s Full Name

Al Yonovitz

Faculty Mentor’s Department

Communicative Sciences and Disorders

Abstract / Artist's Statement

Vocal jitter is the cycle to cycle variation in the vocal output of voiced speech sounds. It is a measure that explains normal human voice quality and has been shown to be indicative of specific voice pathology. The purpose of the proposed research is to determine if using a throat microphone can allow professionals to accurately measure jitter values for conversational speech. Typically, jitter values are measured with patients sustaining an elongated vowel. In this research, participants will have a throat microphone attached to the front of their neck. The throat microphone is a small, flat circular object in the middle of a band that Velcro’s around the neck. Simultaneously, the participants will speak into a microphone near their mouth. Participants will be asked to say ten isolated vowel sounds for an extended length of time. Next the participants will be asked to read a short passage. All of the above tasks will be performed with the throat microphone and the voice microphone. A computer will record vocal output during their speech tasks. The analysis will measure the vocal jitter at the level of the larynx (throat microphone) and the recorded speech (voice microphone). It is hypothesized that during phonation of the sustained vowels the fundamental frequency or jitter values will be the same or extremely similar. It is also hypothesized that during the reading passage that jitter measures will be a more realistic measure with those obtained using the throat microphone. This study is meant to contribute to literature on the study of vocal jitter measures.

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Apr 15th, 11:00 AM Apr 15th, 12:00 PM

MEASURING VOCAL JITTER: CONTINUOUS SPEECH VS SUSTAINED VOWELS

UC South Ballroom

Vocal jitter is the cycle to cycle variation in the vocal output of voiced speech sounds. It is a measure that explains normal human voice quality and has been shown to be indicative of specific voice pathology. The purpose of the proposed research is to determine if using a throat microphone can allow professionals to accurately measure jitter values for conversational speech. Typically, jitter values are measured with patients sustaining an elongated vowel. In this research, participants will have a throat microphone attached to the front of their neck. The throat microphone is a small, flat circular object in the middle of a band that Velcro’s around the neck. Simultaneously, the participants will speak into a microphone near their mouth. Participants will be asked to say ten isolated vowel sounds for an extended length of time. Next the participants will be asked to read a short passage. All of the above tasks will be performed with the throat microphone and the voice microphone. A computer will record vocal output during their speech tasks. The analysis will measure the vocal jitter at the level of the larynx (throat microphone) and the recorded speech (voice microphone). It is hypothesized that during phonation of the sustained vowels the fundamental frequency or jitter values will be the same or extremely similar. It is also hypothesized that during the reading passage that jitter measures will be a more realistic measure with those obtained using the throat microphone. This study is meant to contribute to literature on the study of vocal jitter measures.