Computerized Voice Analyses

The program package Master.VOX comprises 27 modules for the analysis of speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics. Master.VOX has been built around a databank system in order to facilitate (1) normative studies with different types of text and repeated assessment on the same subject at 14-day intervals; (2) clinical studies with psychiatric patients and repeated assessments over several weeks.

Support for Adaptive Strategies

Normative studies with healthy subjects are necessary in order to learn to distinguish between "natural fluctuations" and "significant changes" in speaking behavior and voice sound characteristics. Typically, normative studies are carried out on samples stratified according to gender, age, and educational level. Two repeated assessments at 14-day intervals with 4 different types of text (free speech; reading out loud emotionally neutral text; reading out loud emotionally stimulating text; automatic speech: counting) allows one to compute estimates of between-text variation and within-subject stability over time.

Clinical Studies with Psychiatric Patients

Longitudinal studies of patients under treatment with repeated assessments at dense intervals can be used to monitor the time course of recovery in terms of speech characteristics. Also, Neural Nets (NNs) can be used to predict, for example, the time course of psychopathology syndrome scores on the basis of speech characteristics in combination with other relevant factors.

 

Speech Recordings

• IMPORT  Convert files from microsoft wave-format to vox-format
• TCOPY  Copy/merge vox-tapes, convert tapes to new format
• TAPEINFO  Contents of vox-tapes, segmentation and noise level
• VERIFY  Plots of vox time series, verify segmentation marks
• SEGM  Segmentation of speech recordings in pauses/utterances
• PAUSES  Analysis of pauses, utterances, loudness and dynamics
• TRANS  Tonal spectral analysis covering 7 octaves
• FDFREQ  Analysis of mean vocal pitch, overtone distributions

Similarity/Diversity of Spectral Voice Patterns

• PATTERNS  Similarities between spectral voice patterns
• COMPARE  Systematic comparisons of spectral voice patterns
• CORR  Correlation analyses of voice parameters, scatter plots
• CORR2  Correlations between speech and psychopathology

Data Retrieval

• MSELECT  Selects speech parameters and/or psychopathology scales
• CSELECT  Selects cases (groups), generate learn/test samples
• GSELECT  Selects grouped cases, repeated assessments, conditions

Basic Databank Functions

• CREATE  Create new databank
• LOADDB  Load vox-tapes into databank
• TESTDB  Contents of databank, lists of cases and parameters
• SAVE  Save current modifications of databank
• PUTDATA  ASCII-interface to statistical program packages (SAS/SPSS)
• ITEMS  Analysis of categorial items: frequencies and weights
• SCALES  Load ZGF/COPE/HAMD/PANSS/SSCL16/SANS questionnaire data