Autism & Pitch: Impact on Speech Intelligibility and Loudness Levels

Autistic people can have differences in auditory processing. This project will investigate the effect of differences in voice pitch (fundamental frequency) on a person’s ability to pick a specific voice from a group of voices, and the effect of audio frequency on a person’s ability to tolerate loud sounds. This study will compare autistic and allistic (non-autistic) people, to identify any differences in responses. This research stems from earlier focus group research with autistic participants, suggesting that high pitches are less tolerable, and interfere more with perception, for autistic people.