Acoustic Measures of the Voices of Older Singers and Nonsingers

Objectives This study investigated whether there were differences in the acoustic measures of fundamental frequency (Fo), jitter, intensity, and shimmer of older amateur singers and nonsingers and whether there were significant correlations between these acoustic measurements and listener judgments of speaker age. Methods Acoustic measurements were obtained on 60 speaker participants from a sustained vowel production. Study participants included 30 male and female singers and 30 male and female nonsingers between the ages of 65 and 80 years. In addition, 10 speech-language pathology graduate students were recruited as listener participants to estimate the age of speaker participants from recorded vowel sounds. Results The results of this study indicate that participants were perceived as significantly younger than their real ages, and male and female singers were perceived to be significantly younger than male and female nonsingers. Significant differences were found between male and female singers and nonsingers regarding jitter and intensity, with singers displaying significantly less jitter and significantly greater intensity than nonsingers. Perceived age was found to be related to jitter in male singers and nonsingers and female singers. Perceived age was found to be related to intensity in female nonsingers. No statistically significant differences were found between singers and nonsingers regarding Fo or shimmer. No significant correlations were found between perceived age and intensity in male singers, male nonsingers, or female singers. Conclusions Acoustic and auditory-perceptual features of the aging voice appear to be factors associated with participation in amateur singing.