Cognitive influences on perceived phonatory exertion using the Borg CR10

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the nature of the relationship between perceptions of vocal and mental (cognitive) effort during reading and speaking tasks.

Methods: One hundred and four young, healthy adult participants were randomized into one of three groups. Each group performed a writing task meant to elicit low mental effort, high mental effort, or high mental effort followed by a period of relaxation. Participants then engaged in reading and speaking tasks, meant to elicit high (suppression of a prepotent desire to speak louder) or low (no suppression of a prepotent desire to speak louder) mental effort, and completed ratings of mental effort and vocal effort via adapted versions of the Borg CR10.

Results: Findings indicate that ratings of perceived mental and vocal effort are related to one another, evidenced by strong correlations, and additional analyses reveal that mental effort might drive this relationship.

Conclusions: Perceptions of vocal effort appear to mirror ratings of mental effort during tasks for which vocal activity is relatively stable but cognitive demands fluctuate. The possibility that perceptions of mental effort might influence perceptions of vocal effort should be considered when creating reliable and valid measures of vocal effort as well as when interpreting currently adapted measures of vocal effort in the clinical context.

Keywords:

• Vocal effort
• mental effort
• voice
• self-regulation
• Borg CR10

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Lyn Turkstra and Nadine Connor for their essential contributions to the development of the original portion of this research. The first author would like to thank Kimberly Steinhauer for providing initial interest in using the Borg CR10 as an effort measure.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial relationships to report.

Additional information

Funding

Partial support for this research was provided by The Center for Research Initiatives and Strategies for the Communicatively Impaired at the University of Memphis.

Notes on contributors

Miriam van Mersbergen

Miriam van Mersbergen, PhD, CCC-SLP is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis. Her research employs psychophysiological, psychometric, and behavioral measures to investigate emotional and cognitive influences on voice production and how the voice contributes to personal identity.

Lisa A. Vinney

Lisa A. Vinney, PhD, CCC-SLP is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at Illinois State University. Her research focuses on the role of self-regulatory capacity and task variables on vocal behavior modification and the scholarship of teaching and learning in medical speech-language pathology.

Alexis E. Payne

Alexis E. Payne, PhD, is a Research Associate in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis. Alexis's background is in cognitive and experimental psychology and works to support faculty by consulting on various research projects investigating cognitive factors impacting speech.