Effects of immediate feedback on learning auditory perceptual voice quality evaluation

The study investigated the effect of immediate feedback in training listeners to perceive subtle differences in voice quality, a perceptual skill that is important for speech-language pathologists. Sixty naive listeners were randomly assigned to a feedback group (Group F), a no feedback group (Group NF), and a no training group acting as a control group (Group C). The task was to evaluate the severity of a perceptual voice quality (breathiness) by using a reference-matching paradigm. All participants took part in three rating sessions (pre-training, 2 days after training and 1 week after training). Group F and Group NF participated in a training session immediately after the first rating session, where Group F practiced with immediate feedback given and Group NF practice with no immediate feedback given. The results showed that Group F and Group NF had significant improvement after training, but Group F did not retain the improvement in the third rating session. The use of a reference-matching training paradigm without giving frequent immediate feedback is suggested for auditory-perceptual voice evaluation training. The most effective frequency of immediate feedback is yet to be determined.