OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS Using stimuli produced by classically trained female singers, this study sought to examine how inexperienced listeners' ratings of timbre dissimilarity relate to singer categorization, both between and within voice category. METHOD/DESIGN Stimuli were produced by six mezzo-sopranos and six sopranos classically trained female voice students at three pitches, C4, G4, and F5. Within each category, mezzo-soprano and soprano, three singers were classified as lighter in timbre and three were classified as heavier in timbre. At each pitch, the 12 sung stimuli were combined in all possible pairs and presented to 56 inexperienced listeners who judged each pair for the degree of timbre dissimilarity using a visual analog scale. All stimuli also were rated by expert voice professionals in two dimensions: (1) voice category and (2) vocal weight. RESULTS Multidimensional scaling (MDS) dimensions agreed with teacher-determined voice category at C4 and teacher-determined vocal weight at G4 and F5. MDS dimensions also correlated with single-note ratings of voice category and vocal weight provided by expert listeners who were unfamiliar with the singing voices used in this study. With limited exceptions, no single acoustic variable predicted the MDS dimensions that resulted from the inexperienced listeners ratings of timbre dissimilarity; however, weighted linear combinations of acoustic variables were highly predictive of numerous MDS dimensions. CONCLUSION In spite of a lack of both range and tessitura information, timbre dissimilarity ratings provided by inexperienced listeners yielded MDS dimensions that accurately predicted voice categories and vocal weight and that highly correlated to expert listeners ratings of these two parameters.

中文翻译：

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没有经验的听众对语音类别内和语音类别之间的音色差异的感知。

目的/假设这项研究使用受过经典训练的女歌手产生的刺激，试图检验没有经验的听众对音色差异的评价如何与声音类别之间和内部的歌手分类相关。方法/设计六个中音天s和六个女高音受过经典训练的女声学生分别以C4，G4和F5三种音调产生刺激。在每个类别中，女高音和女高音中，三位歌手的音色较轻，三位歌手的音色较重。在每个音高上，将12个唱的刺激按所有可能的组合进行组合，并提供给56个没有经验的听众，他们使用视觉模拟量表来判断每对音色的相似程度。专家语音专业人员还对所有刺激都进行了两个方面的评估：（1）声音类别和（2）声音权重。结果多维标度（MDS）维度与C4的教师确定的语音类别以及G4和F5的教师确定的语音权重一致。MDS尺寸还与不熟悉本研究中使用的演唱声音的专业听众提供的语音类别和人声权重的单音等级相关。除少数例外，没有一个声学变量可以预测由于经验不足的听众对音色差异的评价而导致的MDS尺寸；但是，声学变量的加权线性组合可以高度预测许多MDS尺寸。结论尽管缺乏范围信息和tessitura信息，