Predictive Factors of Listeners’ Attitudes Related to Dysphonic Voices in Native Brazilian Portuguese

Objectives

To verify whether there are differences in the judgments of listeners’ attitudes as a function of the presence, severity, and type of vocal deviation, and to identify the predictive factors of listeners’ attitudes toward dysphonic voices in Brazilian Portuguese speakers.

Methods

A sample of CAPE-V sentences was used from 44 subjects of both genders. The samples presented different severities of vocal deviation (general grade - GG) (healthy, mild, moderate, and severe) and different degrees of roughness (GR), breathiness (GB), and strain (GS), characterized by a perceptual-auditory judgment performed by speech therapists. The samples were presented to 152 listeners of both genders who performed the judgment of 12 attitudes inserted in a semantic differential scale previously validated for this study. Here, we used a Logistic Regression Model.

Results

There was no association between listener's gender and the judgment of attitudes. Subjects with vocal quality deviation were judged more negatively in relation to vocally healthy individuals. We observed that higher the GG, higher the negative judgment of listeners in relation to the speakers. Listeners judged breathy and strained voices as more negative. In the general model for female and male voices, the increase in GB and GG reduced the chance of a voice being evaluated positively by 16 and 20%, respectively. For female voices, GB and GS reduced the chance of a female voice being evaluated positively by 36 and 19%, respectively. GG reduces the chance of a male voice being evaluated positively by 46%, while GR increases the chance of a male voice being judged positively by 62 %.

Conclusions

There is an association between the presence, severity, and type of vocal deviation and listeners’ attitudes. We identified a predictive model of listeners' attitudes related to dysphonic voices among Brazilian Portuguese speakers. In general, GG and GB were predictors of negative attitudes toward listeners. GB and GS were predictors of negative attitudes toward female voices. The GG is a predictor of negative attitudes toward male voices, while the GR increases the chance of positive judgments.