What Makes Iconic Pitch Associations "Natural": The Effect of Age on Affective Meanings of Uptalk and Creak.
Sasha Calhoun, Hannah White
PMID 39996267WHAT IT FOUND
Listeners rated young women using uptalk as less confident and competent than those using creak or neutral speech.
However, older listeners judged creaky speech as more annoying and less educated than neutral speech, while younger listeners did not.
Key findings
01Uptalk was perceived as more needy, submissive, and physically weak compared to creak and neutral speech by both younger and older listeners.
02Older listeners rated creaky speech as significantly more annoying, ignorant, and unsure than neutral speech, whereas younger listeners saw no difference.
03Younger listeners rated uptalk as more annoying, ignorant, and self-centered than older listeners did.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Articulation rate was not controlled and varied by condition and speaker, which may have influenced judgments. The study only included binary gender categories for listeners, excluding gender-diverse individuals. The sample size was relatively small (60 listeners), and older men were underrepresented. The stimuli were short narratives, which may not reflect the complexity of real-world conversation. Some scales (like inclusivity) may have been interpreted differently by older versus younger listeners due to changing social norms.
Declared interests
The second author was supported by a Graeme Kennedy Master’s Scholarship. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the negative ratings of creak by older listeners as evidence that creak is inherently unprofessional. The study shows that perception is age-dependent: younger listeners rated creak similarly to neutral speech. Context and the listener's age determine whether a voice feature is judged negatively.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →