The role of cognitive cueing in eliciting vocal variability

Variation in duration and frequency during three readings of each of eight sentences by 9 normal and 4 voice-disordered subjects are compared. Instruc tions to the subjects varied with respect to the amount and type of cogniti ve cueing presented in the trials, and the sentences were read in random or der. Variability in fundamental frequency (F-0) was greater when pitch vari ation was specifically cued. Also, the portion of the sentence that was cue d had greater variability in F-0 than other parts of the sentence. Variatio n in fundamental frequency was significantly greater in the cued versus unc ued sentence trials for the voice-disordered subjects but not for the norma l subjects. However, all subjects exhibited significantly greater duration for cued versus uncued readings of the same sentences. Implications for the ory and practice are discussed.