Voice Identification of Prepubertal Boys and Girls by Normally Sighted and Visually Handicapped Subjects

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Abstract
Based on the assumption that prepubertal boys and girls do not differ with respect to larynx size, nor in size of the vocal cavities and, therefore, may be expected to have approximately the same fundamental and formant frequencies, an experiment was carried out in order to investigate whether listeners are still able to determine children's sex on the basis of a few speech samples. Sentences and to a somewhat smaller extent sustained vowels were categorized correctly on speakers' sex by a panel of normally sighted as well as visually handicapped listeners. In addition, evidence is provided that attribution of perceptual labels to children's speech samples corroborates traditional notions about adult men's and women's voices.

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