METHODS Recording experiments Talkers: Sixty talkers participated in the recording. They are subdivided into 12 groups by their age group (Young, Middle-age, or Elderly), sex (Female or Male), and native language (English or Japanese). Data of the middle-age talker groups will be presented here. All the talkers has no prior and present speech and hearing problems. All Japanese talkers had long residence histories in Kansai area in Japan, and all the English talkers had a long residence histories in Bloomington, IN. Speech materials: The target phrase “BCC” was used because it can be spoken similarly in both languages. “The answer was BCC [bisisi] Corporation.” (Eng.) “Kotae-wa BCC [bi  i  i ] kooporeeshyon datta-yo.” (Jap.) Procedure: Each talkers read the same sentence in the following three conditions. Maturation condition: Each talker read the same sentence as if they are 20 year older than they are. Rejuvenation condition: Each talker read the same sentence as if they are 20 year younger than they are. Control condition: Each talker read aloud the sentence in a normal manner. In addition to these utterances, each talker read the same sentence in several ways. Also, they pronounced sustained vowels, and read two kinds of short passage. These data will not presented here. Analysis: Mean F0 values were measured at the portion of “BCC”, from the point of burst for /b/ to the ending point of the target phrase, which was decided from the visual inspection of spectrograms and waveforms. Durations of target phrase was also measured. PRAAT was used for acoustic measurements. Separate three-way ANOVA was performed for mean F0 and durational data with three-levels of Speaking conditions, two-levels of Talker languages, and two-levels of Talker sex. Perception experiments Listeners: Twenty-four native English speakers (Mean age = ** years old). Twenty-four native Japanese speakers (Mean age = 19 years old). Stimuli: The portion of BCC were spliced from each utterance. Sustained vowel and a short sentence from the passage reading were also prepared for each talker. Tasks: Direct age estimation of a talker for each speech sound. INTRODUCTION Fundamental frequency and aging Fundamental frequency (F0) of female talkers decreases with advanced aging(Krook, 1988; Xue & Mueller, 1996; Xue & Deliyski, 2001; Xue, Neeley, Hagstrom, & Hao, 2001), while male f0 tends to increase with advanced aging (Hollien & Shipp, 1972; Mysak, 1959; Mysak & Hanley, 1958; Xue & Deliyski, 2001). Perception of talkers’ age Listeners can estimate the age of a speaker fairly accurately from their speech (Ptacek and Sander, 1966; Ryan and Burk, 1974). Acoustic factors Relationship between F0 and age perception is controversial, but most of the studies showed that f0 is not significant factor correlated with age perception. (Ryan and Burk, 1974; Braun and Rieveld, 1995) Speech rate has also been documented as either a weak or strong cue. (Braun and Rietveld, 1995; Ptacek and Sander, 1966 ). Acoustic properties related with voice qualities are strongly correlated with perceived age (Ryan and Burk, 1974). Socio-cultural factors Pitch can convey various linguistic aspects of speech. Japanese females tend to employ higher portion of their pitch ranges. It is considered that this is due to a socio-cultural constraint on females in Japanese societies (Loveday, 1981, Ohara, 1992). Stereotypes of speech associated with a certain age group might be different in different cultures. Listeners’ familiarity with a certain age group might affect accuracy of age perception. Cohabitation with grandparent(s) is more common in Japan than in the US [XX% vs. X%].  Does these sociological factors cause a difference in age perception? RESEARCH QUESTIONS Are there any relationship between pitch level and stereotypical speech associated with aging? Do Japanese talkers and English talkers show the same relationship between pitch level and speech stereotypes? What will happen when listeners listen to stereotypical speech? SUMMARY - For most of the talkers (especially females), higher pitch is related with speech associated younger talkers. - Lower pitch seems associated with older talkers for some female talkers, but not for male talkers. These relations are similar for both Japanese and English talkers. - Fast speaking rate seems associated with younger speech. However, slow rate speech is not necessary related with older speech. - Listeners can perceive the age differences introduced by talkers in the age-disguised speech. References Loveday, L. (1981). Pitch, politeness and sexual role: An exploratory investigation into the pitch correlates of English and Japanese politeness formulae. Language and Speech, 24, Ptacek and Sander (1966) The 149 th Meeting of the ASA in Vancouver, Canada on May 17, 2005 Acknowledgements This work is supported by an Indiana University Graduate & Professional Student Organization Research Award, an Indiana University Speech & Hearing Sciences Departmental Research Support Program Award, a Fred W. Householder Memorial Award, and an Indiana University Grant-in-Aid Research Award. I appreciate Professor Miyako Muto at Kobe Women’s Junior College for arranging the perception experiment in Japan. 2pSC8. Sociological effects on vocal aging: Age related F0 effects in two languages Kyoko Nagao Department of Linguistics, Indiana University Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University RESULTS Rejuvenation vs. ControlMaturation vs. Control 1.When talkers pretend to be 20 years old younger than their age, their mean f0 values were increased compared with the mean f0 values in the control condition. 2.Regardless of the conditions, Japanese females exhibited higher f0 values than English females. Men did not exhibit such differences. 3.All the talkers seemed to produce the utterances at faster rate in the rejuvenation condition. 4. When talkers pretend to be 20 years old older than their age, their mean f0 values slightly decreased for some females, but did not change much with the mean f0 values of the control condition. 7. In spite of the small f0 and temporal differences between Maturation condition and Control condition, Perceived age for each talker group was older than the actual age. These results suggest that there are other acoustic properties to indicate talkers’ age than mean f0 values and durational information. ConditionsRejuvenationControlMaturation Rejuvenation-- Control***- Maturation***n.s. (p =.935) Figure 3. Mean f0 values (top left) and mean durations (top right) of each talker group in each condition. Downloadable from Talker Language Talker Age groupTalker SexAge range (years old) N EnglishYoungMale EnglishYoungFemale EnglishMiddle-ageMale EnglishMiddle-ageFemale EnglishElderlyMale EnglishElderlyFemale JapaneseYoungMale JapaneseYoungFemale JapaneseMiddle-ageMale JapaneseMiddle-ageFemale JapaneseElderlyMale JapaneseElderlyFemale English male talkers English female talkers Japanese male talkers Japanese female talkers y=x English male talkers English female talkers Japanese male talkers Japanese female talkers y=x ConditionsRejuvenationControlMaturation Rejuvenation-- Control***- Maturation***n.s. (p =.980) Figure 1a. Mean F0 values of each talker in the Rejuvenation condition against the values in the Control condition. Table. Sheffe’s post-hoc test results for F0 values (* indicates significant results, while n.s. stands for not significant.) Table. Sheffe’s post-hoc test results for duration (* indicates significant results, while n.s. stands for not significant.) Figure 1b. Mean F0 values of each talker in the Maturation condition against the values in the Control condition. 5.When talkers pretend to be 20 years old younger than their age, all the talkers seemed to produce the utterances at faster rate in the rejuvenation condition. 6.However, speaking rate was not systematically changed in the maturation condition. Figure 2a. Mean durations of each talker in the Rejuvenation condition against the values in the Control condition. Figure 2b. Mean durations of each talker in the Maturation condition against the values in the Control condition. Figure 4. Mean age differences (=PA-CA) between listeners’ perceived age (=PA) and chronological age (=CA). English male talkers English female talkers Japanese male talkers Japanese female talkers y=x English male talkers English female talkers Japanese male talkers Japanese female talkers y=x