The influence of pitch and speaker sex on the identification of creaky voice by female listeners

Hannah White, Andy Gibson, Joshua Penney, Anita Szakay, Felicity Cox

Thursday, December 15th, 2022,11.30am – 12pm

Abstract

Past work has raised questions about how creaky voice quality is identified in different voices, particularly whether greater pitch differences between modal and creaky voice facilitates creak identification or whether social expectations bias identification in certain voices. While the role of pitch and speaker sex in creak identification has been investigated, results have been equivocal. In this study, we used highly controlled stimuli to examine the extent to which pitch and/or speaker sex affect the identification of creak. A study of 130 Australian English-speaking female listeners found that pitch and speaker sex interacted in listeners’ perception of creaky voice.