Theoretical and methodological development in the study of pathological voice quality

Abstract This special issue focuses on the development of theory in the study of communication disorders and its contribution to a broad theoretical framework for describing speech and language processes. In the case of the study of pathological voice quality, little attention has been paid to theoretical development or to issues of measurement validity. Instead, researchers have generally appropriated scales and categories traditionally used in the study of normal vocal quality. In this paper, we describe some theoretical and methodological problems that we think plague the study of pathological vocal quality as a result of the application of methodology first developed to characterize normal behavior and then applied to clinical phenomena. We argue that application of methods from the study of normal phenomena has actually hindered rather than advanced this clinical research area, and describe an alternative approach that addresses issues of the validity and utility of acoustic and perceptual measurements. Because pathological vocal qualities encompass the full range of possible vocal sounds, more systematic, theoretically motivated studies of pathological voice quality can serve as a fertile source of inspiration (and data) for studies of normal processes in voice production and perception.

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