College-age males' ability to produce the acoustic properties of an aging voice

The purpose of this study was to examine college-age males' ability to produce the acoustic properties of the normally aging voice when reading. The 17 subjects (M age=21.13 yr., SD=1.0) selected for this study were undergraduates who were placed into a single group. The procedure involved recording the subjects while reading The Rainbow Passage aloud. The first reading was in the subject's natural speaking voice. During the second reading, the reader imitated the voice of a normally aging 70-yr.-old man. Fundamental frequency and temporal measures were analyzed for each voice sample. Mean scores for each measure werecompared for the natural speaking-voice production and the production when imitatihg the voice of a normally aging 70-yr.-old man. Analysis showed that temporal measures appear to have the most significant influence on subjects' production when imitating the normally aging voice as seen in the overall increase in all temporal measures.