Age estimation from voice in the Cantonese elderly population: Influence of listener’s age and stimulus types

Abstract

Voice provides listeners with cues to estimate the age of the speaker. Age estimation is a subjective process and its accuracy can be influenced by various factors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of listener’s age and speech stimulus types on age estimation. Sixty listeners (30 younger and 30 elderly) participated in the study. The listeners gave their direct age estimation for 32 speakers based on four types of stimulus: sustained vowel prolongation, sentence, passage and monologue. The results showed that in general, listeners tended to under-estimate age of elderly speakers but over-estimate age of younger speakers. Younger listeners were able to make more accurate age estimation than elderly listeners. Speech stimulus types could influence the accuracy of age estimation from voice. Connected speech stimuli were more effective than sustained vowel prolongation in providing listeners with cues for age estimation.