PURPOSE: To investigate and compare the occurrence of vocal changes in the presence of masking noise between reporters and other professionals. METHODS: Participants were 46 subjects with normal hearing, 23 reporters (study group) and 23 non-reporters (control group). Participants read an excerpt from a TV news broadcast in three listening situations: without masking noise, with 50 dB white noise, and with 90 dB white noise. The narrations were recorded and then submitted to auditory-perceptual and acoustic analyses. The auditory-perceptual analysis was performed by a speech-language pathologist specialized in voice. The acoustic analysis used the software Voxmetria (CTS Informática) to perform the acoustic measurements. RESULTS: In the situation with 50 dB masking noise, individuals in the control group had higher increase of the following parameters, when compared to the group of reporters: pitch (82.6%), loudness (91.3%), and strain (82.6%). The same occurred in the situation with 90 dB masking noise for the same parameters: pitch (95.7%), loudness (100%) and strain (91.3%). CONCLUSION: The negative consequences of the Lombard effect occur in both groups; however, reporters showed the ability to partially inhibit the negative impact of noise situations, probably due to the stability of the professional speech production and activation of other feedback pathways.
Voice; Voice quality; Perceptual masking; Voice training; Noise effects; Loudness perception
