Sexual characteristics of preadolescent childrens’ voices

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Abstract
Perceptual judgments of sexual identity were obtained in response to tape recordings of whispered and normally phonated vowels, normally spoken sentences and sentences spoken in a monotonous fashion. Children (73) provided recordings. The 4 utterance types were chosen to experimentally manipulate selected physical properties of speech thought to exert an influence on listener judgments of sexual identity. Cues stemming from differences in vocal tract dimensions and/or articulatory behaviors apparently provided the primary cues about the sexual identity of these preadolescent children. Although laryngeal source cues could have provided relevant information about the sex of a few children, this variable was felt to play a relatively minor role in the sex recognition process. New information was uncovered about the role certain suprasegmental factors play in the identification of child sex.

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