The perceptual representation of voice gender

John W. Mullennix, Keith A. Johnson, Meral Topcu-Durgun, and Lynn M. Farnsworth

Citation: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 98, 3080 (1995); doi: 10.1121/1.413832
View online: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.413832
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The perceptual representation of voice gender
John W. Mullennix
Departmentof Psychology,
WayneStateUniversity,71 W. WarrenAvenue,Detroit,Michigan48202
Keith A. Johnson
Departmentof Linguistics,OhioStateUniversity,Columbus,
Ohio43210

Meral Topcu-Durgunand Lynn M. Farnsworth

Departmentof Psychology,
WayneStateUniversity,
Detroit,Michigan48202

(Received29 November1993;revised2 June1995;accepted

7 June1995)
The perceptualrepresentation of voice genderwas examinedwith two experimental paradigms:
identification/discriminationand selectiveadaptation.The results from the identificationand
discrimination of a syntheticmale-femalevoicecontinuumindicatedthatvoicegenderperception
was not categorical.In addition,resultsfrom selectiveadaptationexperiments with naturaland
syntheticvoice stimuli indicatedthat the perceptualrepresentation of voice adaptedis an
auditory-based representation.Overall,thesefindingssuggestthatthe perceptual
representationof
voice genderis auditorybasedand is qualitativelydifferentfrom the representationof phonetic
information. ¸ 1995 AcousticalSocietyof America.
PACS numbers: 43.71.Bp

INTRODUCTION dicatedthat the perceptualprocessingof the phoneticinfor-

Listenersare able to identifytalkersby their voiceswith
a great deal of accuracyand very little trouble.Even when
voices are unfamiliar, listenershave very consistentimpres-
sionsof a talker's gender,height, weight, etc. It is obvious
that we have knowledgeabout voices in long-termmemory
(LTM) that is usedin perceivingvoice, as illustratedby the
brief mental hesitationwe sometimesexperiencewhen we
answerthe telephoneand try to identify the voice of the
caller.Despitethe researchon recognitionand memoryfor
familiar and unfamiliarvoices(Kreimanand Papcun,1991;
Papcunet al., 1989;Van Lanckeret al., 1985a,1985b),we
still know very little abouthow voice is represented
during
perceptionand storedin LTM.
The importanceof investigatingthe representationof
voice is underscoredby recent findingsimplicatinga close
relationshipbetweenthe listener'suse of perceivedtalker
voice information and phonetic perception.For instance,
Johnson(1990a) foundthat the perceptionof vowelsis al-
tered when vowels are embedded within carrier phrases
whose intonational contours denote different talkers. He con-
cluded that vowel normalization is mediated through pro-
cessesthatrely on contextualtalker-related
information(see
also Ladefogedand Broadbent,1957). Other studieshave
shownthat variationin talker identity from trial to trial in an
experiment
interferes
withvowelperception
(Assmann
et al.,
1982; Johnson, 1990b; Verbrugge et al., 1976; Weenink,
1986),consonant perception (Fourcin,1968),andwordrec-
ognition(Creelman,1957; Mullennix et al., 1989; Nygaard
et al., 1992; Sommerset al., 1992).Theseinterferingeffects
of voice suggestthat the processingof voice and phonetic
information are closely tied together.Further evidencefor
this closerelationshipwas obtainedby Mullennix and Pisoni
(1990), who foundthattheprocessing of voiceandphoneme
dimensions in a speededclassification task (Gamer,1974)
was integral.In their study,the integralityof processingin-
mationwas contingenton the perceptualprocessingof voice
and vice versa.
Given the close relationshipbetween voice perception
andphoneticperception,it is importantto assess
the specific
processesand representations relevantto each.Theoriesof
speechperceptionhave concentrated almostexclusivelyon
the perceptualprocessesinvolved in processingacoustic-
phoneticinformation(Klatt, 1989). Our view is that to un-
derstandspeechperceptionin its entirety,the perceptual
rep-
resentationof voice must also be delineated.Recently,some
researchhasexploredhow acoustic-phonetic informationis
storedin memory,with the hypothesisadvancedthat speech
is storedin termsof prototypes(Kuhl, 1991;Miller et al.,
1983; Samuel,1982). A similarhypothesishas been enter-
tainedfor voices(Papcunet al., 1989).Althoughthehypoth-
esisthatvoicesare storedin LTM prototypeshasmerit, there
is little empiricalevidencecurrentlyavailablein the litera-
ture to supportthis assertion(although,see Kreimanand
Papcun,1991).
In the presentstudy,our goal is to examinethe percep-
tual representation of talker voice. Specifically,we focuson
the representation of voice gender.The perceptionof voice
genderis dependentupona numberof acousticfactors,in-
cluding fundamentalfrequency,formant frequencies,and
breathiness (Klatt and Klatt, 1990). Previousstudieshave
investigated the relativeimportanceof theseacousticfactors
in contributingto judgementsof voice gender(e.g., Lass
et al., 1976; Murry and Singh, 1980). The importanceof
voice genderin talker voice perceptionis illustratedby the
fact that infantsare able to categorizevoicesinto male and
femalecategoriesat a very early age (Miller, 1983;Miller
et al., 1982). Other researchhas indicatedthat the primary
factorunderlyingthe perceivedsimilarityof pairsof normal
voices is male-female categorization(Singh and Murry,
1978). Given the importanceof genderin the perceptionof

3080 J. Acoust.Soc. Am. 98 (6), December1995 0001-4966/95/98(6)/3080/16/$6.00 ¸ 1995 AcousticalSocietyof America 3080
voice, we decidedthat exploringvoice genderwas the logi-
cal first stepin determininghow voice in generalis percep-
tually represented.The seriesof experimentsdescribedbe-
low was designedto provide specific evidence regarding
how voice stimuli varying in gender are representedin
memory.
In order to investigatethe perceptualrepresentationof
voice gender,we used a twofold approachto the problem.
First, the issueof categoricalperceptionfor voice was exam-
ined. Althoughthereare debatesaboutwhat categoricalper-
ceptionis andhow it pertainsto speechperception(e.g.,see
volume edited by Hamad, 1987), we felt it worthwhileto
explorecategoricalperceptionwith voice genderin orderto
make somepreliminaryassessments aboutvoice genderrep-
resentation.Certainly,there is evidencethat categoricalper-
ceptionmay be a generalperceptualability, rather than a
specializedability restrictedonly to speech(Hamad, 1987).
It is possiblethat this generalability couldexhibit itself with
voice-relatedstimuli that do not vary in acoustic-phonetic
dimensions.If, by usingstandardidentificationand discrimi-
nation paradigms,it is shown that the perceptionof voice
genderis categorical,then discriminationswithin voice gen-
der categoriesshouldbe poor. This result would be consis-
tent with the idea that voice information is converted into a
reducedrepresentation duringperception,with somedetailed
informationaboutvoice gender"lost." On the other hand, if
perceptionof voice genderis not categorical,thenthis would
suggestthat, duringperception,detailedinformationrelating
to voice genderis retainedand is availableto voice discrimi-
nationprocesses.This latter result would be consistentwith
recent findings indicating that episodicinformation about
voiceis retainedin memory(Palmeriet al., 1993).
The secondapproachis to assessthe perceptualrepre-
sentationof voice genderby usingselectiveadaptationtech-
niques.The resultsfrom selectiveadaptationexperimentsin
speechperceptionhaveprovenusefulin examininglevelsof
perceptualprocessingand representation(Samuel, 1986;
Sawusch,1986). In particular,thesefindingsprovide evi-
dencefor at leasttwo levelsof processing andrepresentation
for phoneticperception:an auditory-based level and a higher
abstractlevel (Samuel,1986;Sawusch,1986).In thepresent
study,voice genderstimuli were adaptedundervariouscon-
ditions in order to determinethe level of perceptualrepre-
sentationappropriatefor voice: low-level auditoryor higher
level abstract.Evidencefor a higher level perceptualrepre-
sentation would be consistent with the idea that voice is
storedin terms of abstractmale and female categoriesin
memory.On the otherhand, evidencefor an auditoryrepre-
sentationof voice would suggestthat the representationof
voice genderis not abstract,but is basedon explicit details
aboutthe auditoryparametersrelevantto voice.
In summary,the perceptualrepresentation of voice gen-
der will be investigatedby determiningwhethervoice is cat-
egoricallyperceivedand whetheran auditoryrepresentation
or a more abstractrepresentation is appropriate.
I. EXPERIMENT 1
In experiment 1, we were interestedin determining
whether the perception of a syntheticvoice gender con-
3081 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995
tinuum is categorical.The term categoricalperception,as
used here, adheres to the standard definition of Liberman
et al. (1957) for speech.The test of categoricalness
for a
male/femalevoice continuumprovidesinformationaboutthe
degreeto which auditoryinformationspecificto voice gen-
der is retainedduringperception.If perceptionis categorical,
this would suggest that some detailed information about
voice genderis lost duringperception.If perceptionis not
categorical,this would suggestthat informationabout spe-
cific auditory attributesrelated to voice genderis retained
and subsequentlyused for discriminating among voice
stimuli within a gendercategory.
In this experiment,identificationand ABX discrimina-
tion procedureswere usedto assesscategoricalperception.
The ABX taskis more memoryintensivethanotherdiscrimi-
nation tasks (Pisoni and Lazarus, 1974). However, this is
preciselywhy we chosethe task. With the ABX task, the
likelihoodof obtaininga discriminationpeak in the boundary
region between male and female voice is maximized due to
the additionalmemory load (Macmillan et al., 1977). If a
discriminationpeak is not observedwith theABX procedure,
we would be confident that the discrimination results reflect
an absenceof categoricalperception,since discrimination
peaks would most likely not be found using other low-
uncertainty
discriminationprocedures (e.g.,AX, 4IAX, etc.).
The predictionsare as follows. If the perceptionof voice
genderis categorical,a steep "voice boundary"identifica-
tion function should be observed between male and female
ends of the continuumalong with a discriminationpeak in
the voice boundaryarea. In addition,the observeddiscrimi-
nationperformanceshouldfit with predicteddiscrimination
data derived from the identificationdata (Liberman et al.,
1957). If perceptionis not categorical,a graduallysloping
identificationfunctionwith no sharpboundaryshouldbe ob-
servedalongwith the absenceof a discriminationpeakin the
obtaineddiscriminationdata. These two alternativesrepre-
sent the two extremesof categoricalversuscontinuousper-
ception.Any pattern of identificationand/or discrimination
data falling betweentheseextremeswould representan in-
termediatefinding betweencategoricaland continuousper-
ception.
A. Method
1. Subjects
The subjectswere 30 volunteersdrawn from introduc-
tory and upper-levelpsychologycoursesat WayneStateUni-
versity. Subjectsreceived coursecredit for their participa-
tion. All subjects were native speakersof English who
reportedno historyof a speechor hearingdisorder.
2. Stimuli
The stimuli were synthesizedspeechtokens prepared
with an updatedversionof the Klatt (1980) softwaresynthe-
sispackage.The stimuliconsistedof 250-ms-durationtokens
of the steady-state
vowel/i/ranging perceptuallyfrom male
to female voice. The vowel/i/was chosen because the for-
mant values for male and female voice tokens of/i/do not
usuallyoverlapwith othervowels.In a pilot experiment,the
acousticfactors of fundamentalfrequency (F0), formant
Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3081
 RATING % CORRECT
6 100

80

60

40

20

I • I ; I • • I I, I , 0
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

STIMULUS
ß IDENTIFICATION --x-- OBTAINED ABX ...... PREDICTED ABX

FIG. 1. IdentificationandABX discriminationdatafrom experiment1. The identificationdataare indexedby the ratingscaleon the left Y axis andthe
obtained versuspredicted discrimination
performance in termsof percentcorrectdiscrimination
is indexedby thepercentcorrectscaleontherightY axis.

values(F1 ,F2,F3), and glottalfunction(a combination of
AH, OQ, andTL) were manipulatedto createa setof stimuli
presentedto 16 subjectsfor perceptualratingsof voice qual-
ity. In the pilot experiment,low F0 valuesand low formant
values biased listenerstoward "male" voice ratings. How-
ever,glottalfunctionvalueshad little effecteitherway on the
classification of stimuli as male or female. Two stimuli cor-
respondingto the mosthighly rated "male voice" tokenand
the most highly rated "female voice" token were chosen.
These two tokens differed in F0 and formant values, but the
glottal function values were identical and corresponded to
the least breathy glottal function. The full synthesisvalues
for thesetwo tokensare listed in AppendixA. These tokens
were used as seriesend points for the syntheticvoice con-
tinuum used for the experiment.An 11-membersynthetic
voice continuumvarying from male to female voice was
generatedby incrementingF0 and formantvaluesin linear
stepwisefashionbetweenthe F0 and formantvaluescorre-
spondingto the two end points.Glottal functionvaluesre-
mained constant across the series.
3. Procedure
The baseline identification trials were presentedfirst.
One block of 110 randomized trials (11 continuum
stimulix10 repetitions)was presented.Stimuli were pre-
sented one at a time for identification. Listeners
structedto listento eachstimulusand rate it usinga six-point
scalefrom "good male voice" to "good femalevoice." They
were told to use numbers 1 or 6 if the voice was a good
exemplarof a male or female voice, numbers2 or 5 if the
voice was clearly male or female but did not soundas good
as other voices, and numbers 3 or 4 if they were not sure
about the voice genderand had to guess.
After a 2-min break, listenerswere presentedwith the
two-step ABX discriminationtrials. In the two-step ABX
paradigm,two stimuli differingby two placesalongthe con-
tinuum(i.e., stimuli 1 and 3, 5 and 7, etc.) are presentedas
the "A" and "B" stimuli in the trial. The "X" stimulus is
identical to either A or B and the listener decides whether the
X stimulusmatchedA or B. 180 randomizedtrials were pre-
sented, with half the trials in the ABA format and half in the
ABB format. Each of the three stimulus events on each trial
were separatedby a 500-ms ISI. For each of the nine pos-
sible AB stimuluspairings,the order of stimuli within the
pair was counterbalanced. These arrangementsproduceda
total of 20 discriminationresponsesper stimuluspair. Sub-
jects were given a 1-min break halfway throughthe trial
block. Stimuli were presentedon computerusingthe ONLINE
program(Miller, 1990).Stimuliweresampledat a rateof 10
kHz, low-passfilteredat 4.8 kHz, andpresentedoneat a time
overAKG K240DF headphones to subjectsat a comfortable
listeninglevel.
B. Results and discussion
The identification and discrimination data collapsed
acrosssubjectare displayedin Fig. 1. In experiment1 andin
all subsequentexperimentsdescribedbelow, resultswere
alsoanalyzedwith a sexof listenerfactor.Sinceno effectsof
sex of listenerwere observedin any experiment,all results
are reportedwithoutthis analysisvariable.
were in- As shownin the figure,the identificationfunctionexhib-
its a gradualslope from male to female voice categories.
There is no sharpdiscontinuityin the boundaryregion be-
tween the male and female ends of the continuum. For the
ABX data, two functions are shown: the obtainedABX data
from the experimentand the predictedABX data basedon
the identificationdata. The predicteddata was obtainedby
applyingthe standard
formulaof Libermanet al. (1957) to
the identificationdata for each subjectto derive predicted
discriminationperformance.As seenin the figure, the ob-
tainedABX data consistsof high overall discriminationper-

3082 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennix et al.: Voice gender 3082
formancewith no discriminationpeak. This function varies
substantiallyfrom the near-chancepredicteddiscrimination
performancebasedon the identificationdata. To verify the
differencesbetweenobtainedandpredicteddiscrimination,a
two-way ANOVA with the factorsof stimuluspair and data
type (observedor predicted)wasconducted
on the discrimi-
nation data to test for differencesbetweenobservedand pre-
dicted discrimination.Significantmain effects of stimulus
pair IF(8,23 2) = 3.1, p < 0.01 ] and data type IF(1,29)
=97.4, p<0.001] were obtained.The interactionbetween
pair and data type was also significant[F(8,2 32) - 5.7,
p<0.001]. Newman-Keuls probes of the interaction
showedthat the obtaineddata differed significantlyfrom the
predicteddata for each stimuluspair.
The identification and discrimination results
that the perceptionof the syntheticvoice gendercontinuum
is not categorical.There was no sharpdiscontinuitybetween
male and female categoriesin the identification data and
there was an absenceof a discriminationpeak in the bound-
ary region. In addition,the discriminationperformancewas
substantiallyhigher than the discriminationperformancepre-
dictedby applyingthe Haskinsformula to the identification
data. The patternof identificationand discriminationperfor-
manceis typicalof many auditorypsychophysical functions.
The lack of categoricalperceptionindicatesthat the percep-
tion of voice genderis differentthan the perceptionof pho-
netic stimuli, in termsof categoricalness.Theseresultssug-
gest that the perception of voice gender is handled by
auditory psychophysicalprocesses.In addition, the results
suggestthat specificand detailedauditoryinformationabout
voicegenderis retainedduringperception.
tt. EXPERIMENT 2 comparedto 46.9% for the male responses and 39.9% for the
Althoughthe combinedidentificationand discrimination
data from experiment 1 suggestan absenceof categorical
perception,it is possiblethat the resultswere affected by
anotherfactor.This factor is that intermediatevoice catego-
ries could existin betweenthe male and female end pointsof
the syntheticvoice continuum.If suchvoice categoriesexist,
the presenceof thesecategoriescould influencethe interpre-
tation of the data obtainedfrom experiment1.
To assessthis possibility,a secondidentificationexperi-
ment was conducted.In experiment 2, the same stimulus
continuumfrom experiment1 was used.However, insteadof
using a six-point male/female rating scale, subjectswere
given three responsealternatives:male, female, or "other."
Subjectswere told that the otherresponseshouldbe usedif
they heard a voice that did not fit into the male or female
categories.If the numberof other identificationresponsesto
stimuli in the middle of the continuumtums out to be high,
this would suggestthat anothervoice was perceivedin the
continuum.If the numberof other responsesto thesestimuli
is low, this would suggestthat subjectsin experiment1 es-
sentiallyperceivedthe continuumin termsof the two male/
female categories.
3083 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995
A. Method
1. Subjects
The subjectswere 22 volunteersdrawn from introduc-
tory and upper-levelpsychologycoursesat Wayne StateUni-
versity. Subjectsreceived coursecredit for their participa-
tion. All subjects were native speakers of English who
reportedno historyof a speechor hearingdisorder.
2. Stimuli
The stimuli were the sameas usedin experiment1.
3. Procedure
In experiment2, all aspectsof the procedurefor present-
indicate
ing the identificationtrials were identical to experiment 1
except for the response alternatives. Listeners were in-
structedto listen to each stimulusand respondby pressinga
key correspondingto three choices:male, female, or other.
Listenerswere told that they shoulduse the other response
alternativewheneverthey heard a stimulusthat they did not
distinctlyperceiveas a male or female voice.
B. Results and discussion
The identificationdata collapsedacrosssubjectare dis-
played in Fig. 2. In this figure, the identificationdata are
shownas three separatefunctionsfor eachresponsealterna-
tive. The patternof data for the male and female responses
was approximatelythe same as observedfor experiment1.
For the otherresponse,this alternativewas usedprimarily to
label stimuli from the middle of the continuum. However,
when examiningthe extent to which subjectsusedthis label,
identificationresponsesonly reached32% for the stimulus
receivingthehighestnumberof otherresponses (stimulus6).
Also, the overall total numberof otherresponseswas 13.1%,
female responses.Thus, althoughthere was a tendencyfor
some stimuli to be labeled as an other voice, evidence for the
presenceof a third voice was weak. Overall, the resultsfrom
experiment2 providelittle supportfor the presenceof other
voices in the stimulus continuum.
Itt. EXPERIMENT 3
In the next two experiments,the natureof the perceptual
representation of voice genderwas investigatedby usingse-
lective adaptationtechniques.Selectiveadaptationin speech
perceptionhas a long history(Ades, 1976; Samuel,1986).
Althoughsomeresearchers
have criticizedspeechadaptation
experiments (Diehl, 1981;Diehl et al., 1985),otherssuggest
thatthe techniqueis usefulin examiningthe natureof speech
perceptionandrepresentation (Samuel,1986). The resultsof
adaptationexperimentshave been used to specify details
aboutthe perceptuallevelsof processingusedduringspeech
perception(Sawusch,1986) and the format of LTM repre-
sentations of speech(Miller etal., 1983; Samuel, 1982).
Here, our assumptionabout selectiveadaptationis that the
repeatedpresentationof an adaptingstimulussomehowaf-
fectsor altersthe perceptualprocessingor representationof
speechrelatedto the adaptor.
Mullennix et aL' Voice gender 3083
 % CORRECT
lOO

80

60

4o

20

I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

STIMULUS

--E•-- % Male ---•'---% Female ß % Other

FIG.2. Identification
datafromexperiment
2. Thedataareindexed
bypercent
correct
labeling
ontheY axisforthethreeresponse
alternatives
(male,female,
or other).

In experiments3 and 4, a syntheticmale/femalevoice Other studieshave shown that, in certain situations,adapta-

continuumwas usedin conjunctionwith a numberof differ-
entvoiceadaptors. The adaptorswerevariedin termsof their
acousticcompositionin orderto assesswhetheran auditory
representation or a moreabstractrepresentationof voicewas
appropriate.In experiment3, adaptationwith syntheticend-
point adaptorswas comparedto naturalvoice adaptorsthat
differedslightlyfrom the endpointsin overallauditoryover-
lap. Overall auditoryoverlapwas definedas a combination
of F0 and formantvalue overlap.In experiment4, synthetic
adaptorswere used that varied substantiallyfrom the end
point in one of two acousticfactors,eitherF0 value or for-
mant values. By comparingthe resultsof experiment3 to
experiment4, two issuescanbe investigated. The first issue
is the effects of degreeof auditory overlap on adaptation.
The second issue is the relative contribution of each acoustic
factor to voice adaptation.By examiningadaptationeffects
in this way, the effectsof auditoryoverlapon voice adapta-
tion can be properly assessed.
In experiment3, in two conditions,male and female
end-pointvoice stimuli from the continuumwere used as
adaptors.In two other conditions,naturallyproducedmale
and female voice stimuli were used as adaptors.The end-
point adaptorswere comparedto the natural adaptorsbe-
causewe wantedto assessthe effectsof auditoryoverlap on
tion can occurwhen there is an auditorymismatchbetween
theadaptoranda continuum
endpoint(seeSamuel,1986).
These latter resultshave been interpretedas supportfor a
higher level "abstract"or categoricalrepresentation of
speech(Samuel,1986, 1988). Taken together,it appears
likely that speechadaptationis relatedto bothauditory-level
andhigherlevel processes. In thepresentstudy,the auditory
overlapof adaptorto continuumis manipulated. The results
canprovideinformationaboutwhetherthe adaptation effects
are relatedto an auditory-based perceptualrepresentation or
a more abstractperceptualrepresentation.
In thepresentexperiment, theeffectsof auditoryoverlap
were assessed for voice adaptation.The male and female
syntheticend-pointadaptors werecongruent to themaleand
femalevoice seriesendpoints(a 100% auditoryoverlapof
adaptorwith endpoint).But thenaturallyproduced maleand
femaleadaptorsdifferedacoustically from the male andfe-
male seriesendpoints.Table I showsthe F0, F1, F2, and
F3 values for the syntheticand natural adaptors.For the
TABLE I. List of frequencyvaluesfor F0 andformantsfor syntheticand
naturaladaptorsin experiment3. Differencerefersto theraw differencein
Hz from the syntheticto thenaturaladaptors;ratiois equalto the valueof
the naturalparametersdividedby the value of the syntheticparameter.

voice adaptation.Auditory overlap refers to the degreeof Syntheticadaptors Naturaladaptors Difference Ratio
acousticoverlap of an adaptingstimulusto the continuum
Male F0 136 Hz 125 Hz -11 Hz 0.92
end-pointstimulusin the continuumbeingtested.The role of
F 1 270 Hz 259 Hz - 11 Hz 0.96
auditoryoverlapon selectiveadaptationin speechperception F2 2290 Hz 2074 Hz - 216 Hz 0.91
is very important.Some researchin speechadaptationhas F3 3010 Hz 2938 Hz -72 Hz 0.98
indicatedthat adaptationdoes not occur unlessthere is a
Female F0 250 Hz 230 Hz -20 Hz 0.92
substantialauditoryoverlapof the adaptorwith a continuum F1 310 Hz 362 Hz +52 Hz 1.17
endpoint(Ades, 1976). Theseresultshave beeninterpreted F2 2790 Hz 2506 Hz -284 Hz 0.90
as evidencefor the presenceof an auditorylevel of speech F3 3310 Hz 3595 Hz +285 Hz 1.09
processing
andrepresentation
(Sawusch
andJusczyk,1981).

3084 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennixet aL: Voice gender 3084
natural adaptors,the auditoryoverlapfrom adaptorto series
end point varied from 100%. The percent overlap for each
acousticparameterwas determinedby deriving a ratio value
equal to the value of eachnaturaladaptorparameterdivided
by the value of the corresponding parameterfor the appro-
priatesyntheticcontinuumendpoint(i.e., maleadaptorcom-
paredto male end point, female adaptorcomparedto female
endpoint).This ratiowasconvertedto a percentage overlap
valuefor eachseparateparameter(seeTableI). All param-
eter valuesfor the naturalmale adaptorfell below that of the
male end point. For the naturalfemale adaptor,the F0 and
F2 valuesfell below the female end point, while the F1 and
F3 valuesfell abovethe endpoint.Thusthe auditoryoverlap
of the natural adaptorsto the end points, as defined by a
combination of F0 and formant values, was close to but not
identicalto the valuesfor the syntheticend-pointadaptors.
The predictionsfor experiment3 are as follows. If the
syntheticand naturaladaptorshave the sameeffect on adap-
tation, this would indicate that auditory overlap has little
effect. This result would be consistentwith the hypothesis
that an abstractperceptualrepresentationof voice gender
was adaptedin the experiment.The other alternativeis that
the amountof adaptationproducedby the syntheticand natu-
ral adaptorsdiffers. This result would indicatethat auditory
overlap does affect adaptation,suggestingthat an auditory-
basedrepresentation of voice was adapted.
A. Method
1. Subjects
The subjectswere 56 volunteerswho participatedfor
coursecredit. The subjectswere drawn from the samepool
as the previousexperiments.
2. Stimuli
The stimulus continuum was identical to that used for
experiment1. In addition,two naturallyproducedtokensof
thevowel/i/from a malespeaker(JM) anda femalespeaker
(KG) were recorded,digitized,and storedon disk. The du-
ration of the natural male/i/was 240 ms and the duration of
the naturalfemale/i/was 250 ms. Spectrograms of the natu-
ral and syntheticadaptorsare shownin Fig. 3.
3. Procedure
There were four separateadaptationconditions:male
synthetic adaptor, female synthetic adaptor, male natural
adaptor,andfemalenaturaladaptor.
Fifteensubjects
were
run in each of the syntheticadaptorconditionsand 13 sub-
jects in eachof the naturaladaptorconditions.
Each listener received stimuli in a baseline
and in an adaptationcondition.The baselinecondition was
identical to previous experiments.In the adaptationcondi-
tions,the samestimuli were presentedfor identificationas in
the baseline condition. However, these stimuli alternated
with sequences of adaptorrepetitions.The adaptorsequence
consistedof 50 repetitionsof the adaptor,each repetition
separatedby a 1000-ms ISI. There were ten alternatingse-
quencesof trials, with 11 randomizedcontinuumstimuli pre-
sentedfor identificationafter eachadaptorsequence.
3085 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995
For the syntheticmale and syntheticfemale conditions,
the adaptorsconsistedof the male and female end-point
stimuli from the continuum,respectively.For the male natu-
ral andfemalenaturalconditions,the adaptorswere naturally
produced/i/ vowel tokens spokenby a male and female
speaker,respectively.
Each subject received the baseline block of trials first
followed by the block of adaptationtrials. Each block con-
sistedof 110 trials. Listenersusedthe samesix-pointrating
scale as before.
B. Results and discussion
The resultscollapsedacrosssubjectsfor the four adap-
tation conditionsare displayedin Fig. 4. The figure shows
the identificationfunctionsbefore and after adaptationfor
each of the four adaptorconditions.A visual inspectionof
the data indicates that the identification function is shifted
toward the male end point for the male adaptor conditions
and toward the female end point for the female adaptorcon-
ditions.
Two three-way ANOVAs with the factors of token
(stimulusnumberin the continuum),condition(baselineor
adaptation),and adaptor(syntheticor natural)were run on
the combineddatafrom the two male adaptorconditionsand
the combined data from the two female conditions. This
analysiswas performedto comparethe magnitudeof adap-
tation producedby syntheticversusnatural adaptors.Four
separatetwo-way ANOVAs with the factors of token and
conditionwere conductedas followupsfor each of the four
adaptationconditionsto assessfurther the effects of each
adaptor.
For the male adaptationdata,the three-wayanalysison
the combineddata revealeda significantmain effect of token
[F(10,260)=397.1, p<0.001], condition [F(1,26)
- 19.5, p<0.001 ], andadaptor[F(1,26)=6.8, p<0.02].
A significantinteractionof tokenwith adaptorIF(10,260)
-2.8, p<0.01] and token with condition [F(10,260)
- 4.8, p < 0.001 ] were observed,but no interactionof con-
dition with adaptor(F = 2.0, p < 0.17) and no three-way
interaction(F-1.6, p<0.12) were found. The followup
analysisof the syntheticmale adaptationconditionrevealed
significantmain effects of token [F(10,140)=188.7,
p<0.001] andcondition[F(1,14)-20.5, p<0.001]. The
interaction of token with condition was also significant
[F(10,140)=5.3, p<0.001]. Newman-Keuls post hoc
tests of the interaction showed that differences between base-
line and adaptationwere reliable for stimuli 1-8 on the con-
tinuum.
condition The followup analysisof the natural male adaptation
conditionrevealeda significanteffectof tokenIF(10,120)
- 212.4, p <0.001 ]. The effects of condition[F= 3.7,
p<0.08] andthe iriteraction
of tokenwith condition
(F
- 1.6, p < 0.11 ) were not significant.
For the female adaptationdata, the three-way analysis
on the combined data revealed a significantmain effect of
token[F(10,260)= 343.1, p<0.001 ], condition[F(1,26)
- 6.8, p < 0.02 ], and adaptor[F( 1,26) - 10.5, p < 0.01 ].
Significantinteractions of tokenwith adaptor[F(10,260)
Mullennixet aL' Voice gender 3085
 (a)

Male Femal
e
.............

. ,,

......
4i{11!i[l
l:. l.):..........
........
d•-•t••-:•:•:•:;:•?.
:" •':.• :r;•-•
;,:?
.......................................
7.?ai•{ '-;':'i ";•:7•:•i''
a ................
r•:•::.'::•
';'• - .: :•:'•:.•.....................................
": ß'.:. ••• •.• ;:•.• .......
• ..:<.•: : ..:-.-
............ :::•t.:•;.: .':.:,•:.:.-..
•:•:}:::;':"•. :.',.•:"
--.,-:::::
:'. '-..'"
•:::'"': - -- : ] • ::-::<::•:5.:x:..2
4.•................................................................
• "::'•"•:':'•:<•'•'
'•g............................................

• .............................
•r'7•'•T'T7¾T7T
......................
7....................................................
T•Z•T]:5'5
:.::•
k:•:;
•]•[•;•]•q}ZT•
• .........

.........
•']•.•;
•;:•':(•
??'::•
?:•
.•;.•
.•.
;:...;
:• '[-:...:.
.................
•.: ...................
?.,•:
:,.
::.-•
"•......•;i.;
:•-'i•:
] -•:
8. •38 ......
Time ( seo ) I.

(b)

FIG. 3. Spectrogramsfor the syntheticmale andfemaleadaptors.Spectrograms

for the syntheticadaptorsare shownon top and spectrograms
for the natural
adaptorsareshownat thebottom.Amplitudedisplaysare shownon topfor eachstimulus,F0 valuesovertime in themiddle,andspectrographic displayswith
the centerformatvaluesfor F1, F2, andF3 shownat the bottom.

=8.1, p<0.001] and token with condition[F(10,260) [F(10,140)='2.2,p< 0.03]. Posthoctests

of theinterac-
= 3.5, p<0.001 ] were observed,but no interactionof con- tion showeddifferencesbetweenbaselineand adaptationfor
dition with adaptor(F- 0.1, p < 0.79) and no three-way stimuli 5 and 8-10.
interaction(F= 1.8, p<0.06) were found. The followup The followup analysisof the natural female adaptation
analysis of the synthetic female adaptation condition re- condition revealed a significant main effect of token
vealed a significantmain effect of token [F(10,140) [F(10,120) = 332.3, p< 0.001 ] andof conditionIF(1,12)
= 104.7, p < 0.001 ], but not condition(F = 2.8, p < 0.12). =9.1, p<0.02]. The interactionof token with condition
The interaction of token with condition was significant wassignificant[F( 10,120) = 3.5, p< 0.001 ]. Theposthoc

3086 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3086
 RATING RATING

i i

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

STIMULUS STIMULUS

--'-- Baseline ....... Synthetic Male Adapt --'--Baseline ...... Natural Male Adapt

RATING RATING

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

STIMULUS STIMULUS

---'--Baseline ...... Synth Female Adapt --'-- Baseline ....... Nat Female Adapt

FIG. 4. Baselineand adaptationidentificationdatafrom experiment3. The syntheticmale and naturalmale data are shownon the top left and right and the
syntheticfemale and naturalfemale data are shownon the bottomleft and right.

testsshoweddifferencesbetweenbaselineand adaptationfor The resultsfor the naturalfemale adaptorwere different.

stimuli 5-7.1
Overall, the resultsof experiment3 indicatethat the au-
ditory overlap of adaptorto end point had some effect on
adaptation.The first resultis that the syntheticadaptorspro-
ducedsignificantperceptualchangesin the predicteddirec-
tion toward the end points, as exhibited by the significant
token by conditioninteractions.For the natural adaptors,the
male adaptordid not have a significanteffect while the fe-
male adaptorproduceda changesimilar to the syntheticfe-
male adaptonAlthough the lack of a condition by adaptor
interactionin the overall analysesindicatesno differential
effects of syntheticversusnatural adaptorsfor male or fe-
male adaptation,the individual analysesfor each condition
show that some differences do exist.
For male voice adaptation,the auditorymismatchof the
naturaladaptorto the male end point resultedin an absence
of adaptationwith the naturalmale adaptor.Theseresultsare
intriguingwhen one considersthat all valuesof the acoustic
parametersof the natural male adaptor were less than the
valuesof the syntheticmale adaptonOne speculativeanswer
is that voice adaptationis tunedto regionsof the continuum
in a manner similar to that found for phonetic continua
(Miller et al., 1983; Samuel, 1982). Under this scenario,
even thoughthe male adaptoris unambiguouslyidentifiedas
male, the acousticparametersof the natural male adaptor
may have fallen outside the range of values where it was
effective.
Although the F0 and formant valuesfor the natural female
adaptordid not match the female end point, adaptationwas
still observed.Overall, when consideringboth the male and
female adaptorresults,there is weak evidencefor the hy-
pothesisthat auditoryoverlaphas an effect on adaptationof
voice. However, the hypothesisthat higher levels of voice
processingcontributeto adaptationcannot be completely
ruled out.
IV. EXPERIMENT 4
Experiment4 provided a further test of the effects of
auditory overlap on adaptation.In experiment3, auditory
overlap was definedas changesin F0 and formant values
together.However, the adaptationobservedcould have de-
pendedon an auditorymatchof the adaptorto the continuum
end point for the formantvaluesalone,F0 alone,or both. In
this experiment,two adaptorswere usedwhere the formant
valuesand F0 valuesof the adaptorswere set up in opposi-
tion to one anotherin terms of values appropriatefor male
andfemale seriesendpoints.The adaptorsin this experiment
were designedto test adaptationof the male end of the con-
tinuumonly. One adaptorpossessed formantvaluesidentical
to the male end point but an F0 valueidenticalto the female
end point (the "formantsadaptor").The otheradaptorpos-
sessedan F0 value identical to the male end point but for-
mant valuesidenticalto the female end point ("F0 adap-
tor"). Thusthe voiceadaptorsusedherewere ambiguousin

3087 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3087
 HighFO,LowFs
'
779 ! lee
FIG. 5. Spectrogramsfor the formantsandF0 adaptors.Amplitudedisplaysare shownon top for eachstimulus,F0 valuesovertime in the middle,and
spectrographic
displayswith the centerformantvaluesfor F1, F2, and F3 shownat the bottom.
termsof the major acousticparametersrelatedto voice gen-
der. However, the perceptualratingsfrom the pilot experi-
ment describedin experiment 1 indicated that there were
somedifferencesbetweenthe adaptorsin termsof voice gen-
der quality.On a five-pointrating scalefrom male to female
voice, the F0 adaptorreceiveda rating of 1.8 and the for-
mants adaptorreceiveda rating of 3.3. Thus the F0 adaptor
was rated as more male than the formantsadaptor.
The use of theseadaptorsalso allows an assessment of
whether perceptualvoice quality is responsiblefor adapta-
tion. If this factor matters,one would expect that a signifi-
cant amount of adaptationwould be obtainedwith the F0
adaptorbut not the formantsadaptor(althoughvoiceinfor-
mation can still be perceivedin the absenceof F0; see Re-
mez et al., 1987).This resultwouldsupportthe involvement
of higher-levelabstractvoice representationsin adaptation.
On the other hand, the adaptorsselectedalso allow assess-
ments of the acoustic factors that are involved. If formant
overlap drives adaptation,then adaptationshould be ob-
servedwith the formantsadaptoronly. This result would be
importantbecauseone possibilityfor the effectsof the syn-
thetic adaptorsfound in the previous experimentwas that
they were due to simple formant overlap. In the synthetic
voice series,formant values changedacrossthe continuum,
althoughall stimuliwere identifiedas/i/. Previouswork with
auditory/phonetic adaptationhas shownthat formantoverlap
or formantpatternoverlapresultsin adaptationof phonetic
continua(Ades, 1976; Sawusch,1977). Since the formant
valuesfor the syntheticadaptorscompletelyoverlappedwith
the endpoints,it is possiblethat adaptationwas drivenby an
auditory/phonetic formantfactorunrelatedto voice gender.It
3088 d. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995
Low F..O.,....H.
ighFs
FO
( see ) 2.547
is importantto assesswhetherthe voice adaptationeffects
found previouslywere due to this factor.
Finally, if F0 overlapis responsiblefor adaptation,then
adaptationshouldonly be obtainedwith the F0 adaptor.If
neitheradaptorhasan effect,this wouldindicatethatit is the
combination of the formant and F0 acoustic factors that is
important in producing adaptation. This result would
strengthenthe hypothesisthat the perceptualrepresentation
of voice genderis basedon auditoryparametersand not ab-
stractvoice representations.
A. Method
1. Subjects
Twenty-eightvolunteersfrom the same pool with the
samecharacteristics
as the previousexperimentswere used.
2. Stimuli
The stimuluscontinuumwas identical to experiment 1.
Two adaptorswere used that varied in their acousticand
perceptualsimilarity to the male end-point stimulus.The
adaptorswere drawnfrom the pool of stimulithat were rated
in experiment1. Adaptor1 (the formantsadaptor)had for-
mant values identical to the male end point, but F0 values
identicalto thefemaleendpoint.Adaptor2 (theF0 adaptor)
had F0 valuesidentical to the male end point, but formant
valuesidenticalto the femaleendpoint (seeAppendixB for
synthesis values).Spectrograms of bothadaptorsare shown
in Fig. 5. From the pilot experiment,adaptor 1 received a
rating of 3.3 on the five-pointrating scalefrom male to fe-
male voice and adaptor2 had a value of 1.8.
Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3088
 RATING F0 adaptorwere identical to the formant values for the fe-
male endpoint.If adaptationwas drivenby formantoverlap,
then the F0 shift could be interpretedas a formant-driven
adaptationeffect toward the female end of the continuum
insteadof an assimilationshift. However, this explanation
losesstrengthas one considersthat the formantsadaptorhad
no effect. If adaptationwas formant driven, both adaptors
shouldhave had significantadaptingeffectsin oppositedi-
rections.It is unclearwhy an assimilationeffect would occur
I I I I I I I I I

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 with the F0 adaptor,but the importantpoint is that the ad-

STIMULUS aptationeffectwas absent.The absenceof adaptationeffects
for eitheradaptoris importantfor two reasons:(1) It shows
'-'-- Baseline ....... Formants Adapt
that simpleauditoryoverlapof one isolatedvoice parameter
RATING is insufficientto produceadaptation;and (2) it showsthatthe
perceptualvoice quality of the adaptorhas little effect on
adaptation.The lack of a voice quality effect is consistent
with the idea that voice adaptationis relatedto adaptationof
an auditory-based representation
of voice. Furthermore,be-
causeneither isolated acousticfactor producedadaptation
alone, it appearsthat the perceptualrepresentation of voice
genderis one where theseacousticfactorsare integratedto-
getherin an auditory/spectral representationof voice.
0 I I I I I I I I I ,
I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

STIMULUS V. EXPERIMENT 5

'-'--Baseline ....... F0 Adapt

FIG. 6. Baselineand adaptationidentificationdata from experiment4. The
formantsadaptationdataare shownat the top andthe F0 adaptationdataare
shown at the bottom.
3. Procedure
There were two adaptationconditions:formantsadaptor
and F0 adaptor.Fourteensubjectswere run in each condi-
tion. All other aspectsof the procedurewere identical to
experiment3.
B. Results and discussion
The resultsare shownin Fig. 6. At the top of figure are
the formantsadaptorresultsand at the bottom of the figure
are the F0 adaptorresults.
For the formantsadaptorcondition,a significantmain
effect of token was obtained [F(10,130)=145.8,
p < 0.001 ]. However,therewasno significant effectof con-
dition (F= 1.0, p < 0.34) and no significantinteraction(F
= 0.7, p < 0.69). For theF0 adaptorcondition,a significant of voice, then the instructions should have no effect and no
main effect of token was obtained[F(10,130)--287.8, net differencebetween baselineand adaptationconditions
p < 0.001 ], but no effectof condition(F = 0.5, p < 0.48). should be found.
However, a significantinteractionof token with condition
wasobserved [F( 10,130) = 6.1, p < 0.001 ]. Posthoctests A. Method
of the interaction showed differences between
adaptation
forstimuli3 and6-9.2
Overall, therewas no evidencefor adaptationwith either
adaptor.Althougha significantinteractionof tokenwith con-
dition was obtainedfor the F0 adaptor,the identification
shift was toward the female end point. If anything,this was
an assimilationeffect, not adaptation.
There is one possibleexplanationfor the F0 adaptor
shifttowardthe femaleendpoint.The formantvaluesfor the
The final experimentwas conductedas a further test of
the hypothesisthat voice adaptationis relatedto an auditory-
basedperceptualrepresentation. In experiment5, a situation
was setup where voice adaptorswere usedthat were percep-
tually ambiguousfor eachindividualsubject.Modifying the
methodsthatSawuschandPisoni(1976) usedfor ambiguous
adaptorsin auditory/phoneticadaptation,the baselineidenti-
fication performancefor each subjectwas tabulatedand a
stimulusfrom the voice continuumclosestto the boundary
between male and female voice selectedas the ambiguous
adaptorfor that particular subject.Then, each subjectwas
given instructionsto bias him/her in termsof the perceptual
voice quality of the ambiguousadaptonHalf of the subjects
were told that the adaptorwas male and half were told the
adaptorwas female. If voice adaptationis related to how
subjectsclassify voice into categories,then a cognitive in-
structionalmanipulationto biasthe voicegenderof the adap-
tor shouldresult in adaptationtoward the female end point
for the female instructionsgroup and adaptationtoward the
male end point for the male instructionsgroup.However, if
voice adaptationis relatedto auditory-based representations
baseline and
1. Subjects
Thirty volunteersfrom the same pool with the same
characteristics
as the previousexperimentswere used.
2. Stimuli
The stimuluscontinuumwas identical to experiment1.
The adaptorfor each subjectwas a stimulusdrawn from the
continuum.

3089 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3089
 RATING
I I
5 6 7 8
STIMULUS
'-'-- Identification ....... Male
RATING
2 3 4 5 6 7
STIMULUS
--'-- Baseline ...... Female
FIG. 7. Baselineand adaptationidentificationdata from experiment5. The
male instructionsadaptationdata are shownat the top and the female in-
structionsadaptationdata are shownat the bottom.
3. Procedure
There were two adaptationconditions:male instructions
adaptor and female instructionsadaptor. Fifteen subjects
were run in eachcondition.The adaptorfor eachsubjectwas
selectedby examiningthe baselinetrials data for each indi-
vidual subject.The averagerating was calculatedfor each
stimulusand the stimulushaving a rated value closestto the
midpointvalueof the male/femaleratingscale(3.5) was se-
lected as the ambiguousadaptor.Thus, for each individual
subject,the adaptorselectedwas basedonly on that subject's
baselineidentificationperformance.Subjectsin the male in-
structionsgroup were told that they would hear a "male
voice" adaptorand subjectsin the female instructionsgroup
were told they would hear a "female voice" adaptorin the
adaptationblock. The instructionsread by subjectsfor the
adaptationconditionswere identical to the instructionsused
in experiment4 for the male and female syntheticadaptor
conditions.In addition,the experimenterswere instructednot
to say anythingabout the ambiguousnatureof the adaptor.
All other aspectsof the procedurewere identicalto experi-
ment 3.
B. Results and discussion
The resultsare shownin Fig. 7. At the top of figure are
the male instructionsgroup resultsand at the bottom of the
figure are the female instructionsgroupresults.
For the male instructionsgroup,a significantmain effect
of token was obtained[F(10,140)=350.8,
3090 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995
However,there was no significanteffect of condition(F
= 2.3, p < 0.15) andno significantinteractionof tokenwith
condition(F= 1.4, p<0.19). For the female instructions
group, significantmain effects of token [F(10,140)
=360.8, p<0.001] and condition [F(1,14)=21.3,
p < 0.001 ] wereobtained.The interactionof tokenwith con-
dition was also significant[F(10,140)=3.1, p<0.001].
Post hoc tests of the interaction showed reliable differences
betweenbaselineand adaptationconditionsonly for stimuli
I I I I
9 10
4-7, 9, and11.3
The resultsfor the male instructionsgroupwere consis-
tent with an auditory-basedexplanationof voice adaptation.
Instructions
However, the resultsfor the female instructionsgroup were
unexpected.When subjectswere told that the adaptorwas
female, they heard the stimuli acrossthe continuumas more
female(assimilation).
Why wouldmaleinstructions
haveno
effect but female instructionsproduce assimilation?One
speculativeansweris that subjectswho receivedfemale in-
structionsadjustedtheir overall criteria to favor female re-
sponsesto the other stimuli in the series.However, this ex-
planation is ad hoc. It is interesting to note that, in
experiment4, assimilationtoward the female end point was
8 9 10 11 also found, but was producedby adaptationwith the F0
adaptor.Although there may be some common mechanism
producingthis effect in both experiments,the nature of this
Instructions
mechanism remains unclear.
Vl. CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the findingsfrom the seriesof experimentspre-
sentedhere convergeto form a preliminary picture of the
perceptualrepresentations of voice gender.First, the results
from experiment 1 using identification and discrimination
proceduresindicatethat the perceptionof a syntheticvoice
gender continuum is not categorical.The absenceof cat-
egoricalperceptionsuggests that the perceptionof voicegen-
der informationin the speechsignalis accomplished through
auditory psychophysicalprocesses.Furthermore,the high
overalldiscriminationperformanceindicatesthat specificau-
ditow informationabout voice is retained and, at the very
least,is availableto discriminationprocesses.Sincethe per-
ceptualprocessesthat extractvoice informationfrom the sig-
nal rely on contactwith storedrepresentations of speechin
LTM, it would appearthat voice genderis not represented in
memoryin termsof abstractrepresentations that contain"re-
duced" or canonicalrepresentations of voice.
Second,the resultsfrom the selectiveadaptationexperi-
ments in experiments3-5 are favorable to the hypothesis
that the perceptualrepresentations of voice genderare audi-
tory based.There was someindicationin experiment3 that
the auditory overlap of the adaptor to the continuumend
point affectedadaptation.Interpretingthis result within the
context of other speechadaptationstudieswhere auditory
overlapaccounts
for adaptation
(Ades,1976;Sawusch,1986;
Sawuschand Jusczyk,1981), it appearsthat the perceptual
representationof voice gender that was adapted was an
auditory-basedrepresentation.In experiment4, further sup-
port was given to this idea, as adaptorsthat shared one
acousticparameter(eitherformantvaluesor F0 value)with
p<0.001]. a voice end point failed to producean adaptingeffect, again
Mullennixet al.' Voice gender 3090
suggestingthat auditoryoverlapis important.Finally, in ex- findingsrepresenta first step toward definingthe natureof
periment 5, there was no clear-cutevidencein supportof a the perceptualrepresentationof voice genderand that much
higher level cognitivefactor in voice adaptationand by ex- of the knowledgewe have about acoustic-phoneticpercep-
tensionno evidencefor an abstractrepresentationof voice tion is based on work with syntheticspeech.In addition,
gender. syntheticvoiceshave been usedby othersto determinehow
When the findingsfrom all experimentsare considered listeners
judgethe perceptualqualityof voice(Gerrattet al.,
together,somedifferencesand similaritiesbetweenphoneme 1993). But, we do acknowledge that in orderto providea
representations and voice genderrepresentations can be dis- more definitive examinationof voice representation,future
cussed.The most importantfinding is that voice genderis studiesshouldcomparesyntheticspeechto naturalspeechin
not storedin abstractmale and female voice representations. addressingrelated issues.
Instead, voice gender appearsto be stored in the form of In conclusion,the hypothesisthat voice genderis stored
auditory-basedperceptualrepresentations. These representa- in abstractrepresentationsin memoryreceivedlittle support.
tions,in all probability,containspecificauditoryinformation However, the present investigationfocused only on a few
about acousticvoice parametersrelevant to gender.The re- preliminary aspectsof this issue. Future researchneeds to
sults of experiment4 suggestthat theserepresentationsare examinein furtherdetail the prototypehypothesisof storing
not basedon one isolatedparameterlike F0 or formant fre- voicesin memory (Papcunet al., 1989) and other details
quencies.Instead,the representations are probablyan audi- about voice representationnot specificallyrelated to voice
tory compositeof the various acousticfactors relevant to gender.
voice genderlike F0, formantfrequencies,breathiness,etc.
Althoughthereis a closerelationshipbetweenphoneticcod- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ing and voice codingprocessesduringperception,the repre-
This researchwas supportedby NIDCD Grant No. R01-
sentationsof phonemesand voicesappearto be qualitatively
DCO 1667 to one of the authors(J. W. M.) We wish to thank
different in that phoneticrepresentationsmay not be as de-
tailed. Georgianne Baartmans, Renee Dudzinski, Kathy Gorday,
and Margaret Webb for running subjectsand Lin Zong for
The adaptationeffectsobservedalso contrastwith stud-
programming assistance.Thanks also to Jim Ralston, Jim
ies examiningvowel adaptation(Godfrey, 1980; Morse
Sawusch,and one anonymousreviewer for useful comments
et al., 1976). Vowel adaptation,as assessed
in thesestudies,
and critiques.
can occur in some circumstanceswhen the vowel adaptor
and vowel end point are spectrallydissimilar.Resultsof this
APPENDIX A
type can be explainedby positingthe involvementof either
higher level auditorypatternsor abstractphoneticrepresen-
Male end-point synthesis values
tations.However, the lack of adaptationwith spectrallydis-
similar voice adaptorsobservedin the presentstudysuggests
SYM V/C VAL SYM V/C VAL
that voice is tied to lower level auditoryrepresentations.
The presentresultsalso serve to suggestfuture direc- sr C 10 000 nf C 4
tions to pursue concerningthe acousticfactors related to du C 250 ss C 2
voicegenderperception(Coleman,1976;Lasset al., 1976; ui C 5 rs C 1
Murry andSingh,1980;SinghandMurry, 1978). Insteadof f0 V 136 av V 60
focusing an separateindividual acousticfactors and how F 1 v 270 b1 v 60
they contributeto genderperception,the resultsof experi- F2 v 2290 b2 v 90
ments 3 and 4 suggestthat perhapsvoice gendershouldbe F3 v 3010 b3 v 150
studied in terms of integrated auditory representations.In F4 v 3500 b4 v 200
addition,the presentfindingssuggestthat infants' classifica- F5 v 3700 b5 v 200
tion of voiceinto male andfemalecategories(Miller, 1983; f6 v 4990 b6 v 500
Miller et al., 1982) may be basedon heuristicsthat utilize fz v 280 bz v 90
specific and detailed auditory voice information. Further fp v 280 bp v 90
studiesof the type performedin the presentstudywith male- ah V 35 oq V 75
only voices and female-only voices may help to elucidate at v 0 tl V 20
some of these issues. af v 0 sk v 0
Finally, one dimensionalissueshouldbe mentionedcon- al v 0 pl v 80
cerningthe presentresults.All of the experimentsreported a2 v 0 p2 v 200
here usedsyntheticspeechtokens.One possiblecriticismof a3 v 0 p3 v 350
this studyis that the resultsfound with syntheticspeechmay a4 v 0 p4 v 500
not generalizeto natural speech.Synthetic voices are re- a5 v 0 p5 v 600
duced stimuli that do not contain the full complementof a6 v 0 p6 v 800
acoustic information contained in natural voices. There is an v 0 ab v 0
much evidenceindicating that perceptionand memory for ap v 0 os C 0
syntheticstimuliis differentthanfor naturalstimuli(Ralston gO v 64 dF v 0
et al., 1995). Our reply to thispotentialdiscussion
is thatour db v 0

3091 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3091
Varied parameters SYM V/C VAL SYM V/C VAL

Time fO av ah oq tl F3 v 3310 b3 v 150

F4 v 4100 b4 v 200
0 136 0 20 25 0 F5 v 3700 b5 v 200
5 136 54 20 28 0
f6 v 4990 b6 v 500
10 136 60 20 31 0
15 136 60 20 34 0
fz v 280 bz v 90
20 136 60 20 37 0 fp v 280 bp v 90
25 136 60 20 40 0 ah V 35 oq V 75
30 136 60 20 43 0 at v 0 tl V 20
35 136 60 20 46 0 af v 0 sk v 0
40 136 60 20 50 0 al v 0 pl v 80
45 136 60 20 50 0
a2 v 0 p2 v 200
50 136 60 20 50 0
a3 v 0 p3 v 350
55 136 60 20 50 0
60 136 60 20 50 0
a4 v 0 p4 v 500
65 136 60 20 50 0 a5 v 0 p5 v 600
70 136 60 20 50 0 a6 v 0 p6 v 800
75 136 60 20 50 0 an v 0 ab v 0
80 136 60 20 50 0 ap v 0 os C 0
85 136 60 20 50 0 gO v 64 dF v 0
90 136 60 20 50 0 db v 0
95 136 60 20 50 0
100 136 60 20 50 0
105 136 60 20 50 0
Varied parameters
110 136 60 20 50 0
115 136 60 20 50 0 Time fO av ah oq tl
120 136 60 20 50 0
0 250 0 40 45 10
125 136 60 20 50 0
5 250 54 40 48 10
130 135 60 20 50 0
10 250 60 40 51 10
135 134 60 20 50 0
140 133 60 20 50 0 15 250 60 40 54 10
145 132 60 20 50 0 20 250 60 40 57 10
150 131 60 20 50 0 25 250 60 40 60 10
155 130 60 20 50 0 30 250 60 40 63 10
160 129 60 20 50 0 35 250 60 40 66 10
165 128 60 20 50 0 40 250 60 40 70 10
170 127 60 20 50 0 45 250 60 40 70 10
175 126 60 20 50 0 50 250 60 40 70 10
180 125 60 20 50 0 55 250 60 40 70 10
185 124 58 21 50 1 60 250 60 40 70 10
190 123 57 22 51 3 65 250 60 40 70 10
195 122 56 23 52 4 70 250 60 40 70 10
200 121 55 24 53 6 75 250 60 40 70 10
205 120 53 25 53 7 80 250 60 40 70 10
210 119 52 26 54 9 85 250 60 40 70 10
215 118 51 28 55 10 90 250 60 40 70 10
220 118 50 29 56 12 95 250 60 40 70 10
225 117 48 30 56 13 100 250 60 40 70 10
230 116 47 31 57 15
105 250 60 40 70 10
235 115 46 32 58 16
110 250 60 40 70 10
240 114 45 33 59 18
115 250 60 40 70 10
245 113 0 35 60 20
120 250 60 40 70 10
125 250 60 40 70 10
130 248 60 40 70 10
Female end-point synthesis values 135 246 60 40 70 10
140 244 60 40 70 10
SYM V/C VAL SYM V/C VAL 145 242 60 40 70 10
150 241 60 40 70 10
sr C 10 000 nf C 4 155 239 60 40 70 10
du C 250 ss C 2 160 237 60 40 70 10
ui C 5 rs C 1 165 235 60 40 70 10
f0 V 250 av V 60 170 234 60 40 70 10
F1 v 310 bl v 60 175 232 60 40 70 10
F2 v 2790 b2 v 90 180 230 60 40 70 10

3092 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995

ß
Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3092
Time fO av ah oq tl Time fO av ah oq tl
185 229 58 41 70 11 40 250 60 20 50 0
190 227 57 42 71 13 45 250 60 20 50 0
195 225 56 43 72 14 50 250 60 20 50 0
200 224 55 44 73 16 55 250 60 20 50 0
205 222 53 45 73 17 60 250 60 20 50 0
210 220 52 46 74 19 65 250 60 20 50 0
215 219 51 48 75 20 70 250 60 20 50 0
75 250 60 20 50 0
220 217 50 49 76 22
80 250 60 20 50 0
225 216 48 50 76 23
85 250 60 20 50 0
230 214 47 51 77 25
90 250 60 20 50 0
235 212 46 52 78 26
95 250 60 20 50 0
240 211 45 53 79 28
100 250 60 20 50 0
245 209 0 55 80 30 105 250 60 20 50 0
110 250 60 20 50 0
115 250 60 20 50 0
APPENDIX B
120 250 60 20 50 0
125 250 60 20 50 0
130 248 60 20 50 0
"Formants adaptor" synthesis values 135 246 60 20 50 0
140 244 60 20 50 0
SYM V/C VAL SYM V/C VAL 145 242 60 20 50 0
150 241 60 20 50 0
sr C 10 000 nf C 4 155 239 60 20 50 0
du C 250 ss C 2 160 237 60 20 50 0
ui C 5 rs C 1 165 235 60 20 50 0
170 234 60 20 50 0
f0 V 250 av V 60
175 232 60 20 50 0
F1 v 270 b1 v 60
180 230 60 20 50 0
F2 v 2290 b2 v 90
185 229 58 21 50 1
F3 v 3010 b3 v 150 190 227 57 22 51 3
F4 v 3500 b4 v 200 195 225 56 23 52 4
F5 v 3700 b5 v 200 200 224 55 24 53 6
205 222 53 25 53 7
f6 v 4990 b6 v 500
210 220 52 26 54 9
fz v 280 bz v 90 215 219 51 28 55 10
fp v 280 bp v 90 220 217 50 29 56 12
ah V 35 oq V 75 225 216 48 30 56 13
at v 0 tl V 20 230 214 47 31 57 15
af v 0 sk v 0 235 212 46 32 58 16
al v 0 pl v 80 240 211 45 33 59 18
245 209 0 35 60 20
a2 v 0 p2 v 200
a3 v 0 p3 v 350
a4 v 0 p4 v 500 "FO adaptor" synthesis values
a5 v 0 p5 v 600
a6 v 0 p6 v 800 SYM V/C VAL SYM V/C VAL
an v 0 ab v 0
ap v 0 os C 0 sr C 10000 nf C 4
du C 250 ss C 2
gO v 64 dF v 0
db v 0 ui C 5 rs C 1
f0 V 136 av V 60
F1 v 310 b1 v 60
Varied parameters F2 v 2790 b2 v 90
F3 v 3310 b3 v 150
Time fO av ah oq tl F4 v 4100 b4 v 200
F5 v 3700 b5 v 200
0 250 0 20 25
5 250 54 20 28
f6 v 4990 b6 v 500
10 250 60 20 31 fz v 280 bz v 90
15 250 60 20 34 fp v 280 bp v 90
20 250 60 20 37 ah V 35 oq V 75
25 250 60 20 40 at v 0 tl V 20
30 250 60 • 20 43 af v 0 sk v 0
35 250 60 20 46 al v 0 pl v 80

3093 J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 98, No. 6, December 1995 Mullennix et aL: Voice gender 3093
SYM V/C VAL SYM V/C VAL •Forallfouradaptation
conditions,
theresults
werealsoanalyzed
intermsof
categoryboundarydata.Categoryboundarieswere computedfor baseline
and adaptationconditionsfor eachsubjectandthen analyzedin a one-way
a2 v 0 p2 v 200
ANOVA. The resultsusing this method mirrored the resultsreportedon
a3 v 0 p3 v 350 analysesof raw identificationdata,in termsof overalleffectof condition:
a4 v 0 p4 v 500 [F(1,14)=6.8, p<0.03] for syntheticmale, (F=0.8, n.s.) for natural
a5 v 0 p5 v 600 male (F-0.4, n.s.)for syntheticfemale,and[F(1,12)= 10.7, p<0.01]
a6 v 0 p6 v 800 for natural female. Thus the effects of adaptationas measuredthrough
an v 0 ab v 0 categoryboundarymovementanalyseswere approximatelythe same.
2Results
forthesetwoconditions
werealsoanalyzed
usingcategory
bound-
ap v 0 os C 0 ary data. The analysesshowedthat the effect of condition,usingcategory
gO v 64 dF v 0 boundarydata,was similarto the analysesbasedon raw identificationdata
db v 0 for the formantsadaptor(F= 1.3, n.s.)andfor the F0 adaptor(F= 3.2,
n.s.).
Varied parameters 3Results
forthese
twoconditions
werealsoanalyzed
usingcategory
bound-
ary data. The resultsshowedthat the effect of condition,usingcategory
boundarydata,was similarto the analysesbasedon raw identificationdata
Time fO av ah oq t1 for the male instructions
condition(F= 2.5, n.s.) and the femaleinstruc-
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0 136 0 20 25 0
5 136 54 20 28 0
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