Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of emotion on several key acoustic features of vibrato including vibrato rate, extent, and steadiness (measured by FM rate COV and FM extent COV). We hypothesized that intensity of emotion would have a significant effect on vibrato rate, extent, and periodicity, although the direction of these changes was undetermined. There were 10 participants, including eight females and two males, who were graduate student singers with high competency ratings. Each participant completed a series of tasks including sustained vowels at several pitch and loudness levels, an assigned song that was determined to have neutral emotion, and a personal selection that was selected because it included sections of intense emotion. Vowel tokens were averaged for each task, and measurements of mean f0, mean dB, FM rate, FM extent, FM rate COV and FM extent COV were calculated by task for each participant. Contrast analyses were performed comparing each task against the personal selection (high emotion) task. The results suggest that FM rate and FM rate COV may have been influenced by level of emotion, and FM extent, FM rate COV and FM extent COV were likely influenced by the performance nature of the task.

Degree

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

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