The Effect of Anchors and Training on the Reliability of Perceptual Voice Evaluation

TLDR

Perceptual voice evaluation is widely used to rate vocal quality impairment, but its reliability is compromised by subjective judgments based on listeners’ variable internal standards. This study examined how providing external anchors and a training program would enhance the reliability of perceptual voice evaluation among naive listeners. The authors introduced external anchors and a structured training regimen designed to counteract individual internal standards during the evaluation process. Anchors and training generally improved reliability, particularly for male voices, and synthesized anchors combined with training were more effective than natural voice anchors for assessing perceptual roughness and breathiness.

Abstract

Perceptual voice evaluation is a common clinical tool for rating the severity of vocal quality impairment. However, the evaluation process involves subjective judgment, and reliability is therefore a major issue that needs to be considered. When listeners are asked to judge the quality of a voice signal, they use their own internal standards as the references. These internal standards can be variable, as different individuals may have acquired different standards in prior situations. In order to improve the reliability of the perceptual voice evaluation process, external anchors and training are provided to counteract the effect of these internal standards. This study investigated to what extent the provision of anchors and a training program would improve the reliability of perceptual voice evaluation by naive listeners. The results show, in general, that anchors and training helped to improve the reliability of perceptual voice evaluation, especially in the rating of male voices. Furthermore, it was found that anchors made up of synthesized signals combined with training were more effective in improving reliability in judging perceptual roughness and breathiness than natural voice anchors.