Age-related differences in acoustical aspects of contrastive stress in women.

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the fundamental frequency (F0), durational, and sound pressure characteristics of speech during production of contrastive stress, a suprasegmental component of speech, in young adult and elderly women. Results indicate that, while both groups significantly increased F0, duration, and sound pressure level during production of contrastive stress, elderly women increased F0 to a significantly greater extent than young women and, for all acoustic parameters, the groups were dissimilar in position effects. In spite of the age related differences, such differences did not appear to limit the ability of elderly women to provide linguistic information through prosody. However, they may do so differently from young women. These findings may have implications in terms of treatment of speech disorders in the elderly.

Collaborative referencing in elderly women.

This preliminary work compared the process of collaborative referencing in younger and elderly women, a process which requires joint effort from both the speaker and the listener. Four women in their thirties and four women in their seventies were paired with an unacquainted partner within the same age group. Each pair completed six trials of a barrier task in which they had to converse about abstract figures to arrange them in the same order. With repetition of the task, both pairs of younger women reduced the number of words and turns used to complete the task while only one of the pairs of elderly women did so and, even then, used many more words than younger women to complete the task. Also, in comparison with elderly women, younger women were more likely to use strategies which facilitated least effort in completion of the task. In a task designed to ensure accuracy, elderly women made errors while younger women did not. These findings suggest that elderly women may not benefit from the collaborative nature of a conversational interaction as do younger women.

Fundamental frequency variability in elderly women during production of stressed and unstressed words.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine intrasubject and intersubject fundamental frequency (F0) variability in a group of young adult and elderly female speakers during the production of stressed and unstressed words. While both groups exhibited greater intersubject variability during stressed versus unstressed productions, stressed productions were more variable in the elderly women than in the young adults. Also, the elderly women exhibited greater intrasubject variability during stressed and unstressed productions relative to young adults. Implications of these findings were discussed.

Formant frequency characteristics of children, young adult, and aged female speakers.

Previous literature indicates that a difference may exist between formant frequencies (F1 and F2) of children, young adult, and elderly speakers. The purpose of this study was to compare F1 and F2 of 3 young, 6 young adult, and 3 elderly female speakers for the /i/, /ae/, /u/, and /a/ vowels. Analysis indicates a trend towards vowel reduction across the life span. These findings support previous research regarding age-associated acoustic changes as well as support for the possible anatomical and physiological alterations which may influence such changes.