Background: Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) (Hillenbrand & Houde 1996) is an acoustic parameter currently recommended as a robust measure of dysphonia in clinical voice assessment (Patel et al 2018). Its use in clinic is currently limited by conceptual complexity of CPP relative to other acoustic measures and due to the lack of normative data. Work has been ongoing in University of Galway to collect normative CPP data for young adults living in Ireland, both on-site and remotely (using mobile phones), but there is lack of representation of male speakers.
Aims: The aim of the project is to establish CPP data for normophonic young adults living in Ireland.
Hypotheses: This is an exploratory, data-collection oriented project, so no hypotheses are proposed.
Objectives: (1) Recruit 20 participants (male, aged 18-24); (2) Collect audio recordings of participants on-site and remotely (using mobile phone) producing various speech tasks (sustained vowels, connected speech) on-site and remotely; (3) Extract CPP values from the audio using acoustic analysis software Praat; (4) Perform statistical analysis of the new and previously collected data to establish the effect of gender and speech task segmental composition on CPP values.
What the work is expected to establish: The work will allow to finalise the ongoing collection of normative CPP data for young adults living in Ireland. The analysis of collected data will contribute to the normative CPP baseline values for SLTs with which to compare disordered voice analysis data. It will provide clear information on the impact of gender and speech task on CPP values. It will ultimately facilitate the use of CPP in clinical voice assessment in line with the recent best practice recommendations.
