A Comparison of Vowel Acoustics Between Older and Younger Adults

Previous research has shown a difference in vowel acoustics between older and younger adults, possibly related to age-related changes in vocal tract morphology. Data suggest that vowel acoustics may vary as a function of neighborhood density and word frequency in older adults, possibly due to the mediating influence of lexical access. However, no studies have examined the relationship of density and frequency to vowel dispersion in older adults. This investigation examined whether these two factors interact. Results show that older adults had overall lowerfrequency formants, and qualitatively differentshaped vowel spaces, than the younger adults, but the influences of word frequency and neighborhood density on the acoustic characteristics of vowels were statistically equivalent in both groups.