Influence of Vocal Aging and Visual Cues on Listener Perception of Speaker Age

Date Added
November 14th, 2025
PRO Number
Pro00147043
Researcher
Cali Loblundo

List of Studies

Keywords
Aging, Healthy Volunteer Studies, Throat
Summary

This cross-sectional study aims to examine the impact of visual cues on listeners' perception of speaker age. Eligible speaking participants include adult males and females between the ages of 18–90 years old without voice or hearing disorders. Eligibility will be determined by research coordinators via patient demographic forms and validated voice and hearing assessments. Speaking participants will have two audio recordings taken: (1) sustained vowel sound and (2) reading of the Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V), a standardized tool employed to evaluate the perceptual characteristics of voice quality across a wide age range. To develop the materials for the listening participants, CAPE-V audio recordings obtained from the speaking participants will be systematically paired with race and age-matched photographs obtained from a publicly available database. The finalized materials will encompass three experimental conditions: (1) audio only, (2) audio presented with a standardized photograph of an individual matched to the speaker's gender and age, and (3) audio presented with a standardized photograph of an individual matched for gender but differing in age. Naïve listening participants, blinded to the experimental conditions, will then be presented with these materials in a randomized order and asked to estimate the perceived ages of the speakers. Additionally, basic acoustic analyses of each sustained vowel sound recording (e.g., jitter, shimmer) will be conducted by a trained professional using the speech analysis software PRAAT.

Institution
MUSC
Recruitment Contact
Priyanka Shah
571-439-4745
shahpri@musc.edu



-- OR --