Effects of gender on the use of voice onset time and fundamental frequency cues in perception and production of English stops

This study investigated the effects of gender on the use of voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0) cues in perceiving and producing stop voicing in English. This line of inquiry stemmed from the consistent finding in previous studies that females produced longer mean VOT values than males for voiceless stops in English. The results of a forced-choice identification experiment showed that listener gender had no significant effect on the use of VOT and F0 cues in categorizing voiced and voiceless stops. The results of a production experiment found that females produced a smaller average VOT value for voiceless stops than males, contradicting the results of previous studies that females consistently showed longer mean VOT values. The statistical analyses did not identify any significant gender-based differences in VOT values and VOT/F0 distinctions between voiced and voiceless stops. The results of the perception and production experiments may indicate that the gender is not a factor in the use of VOT and F0 cues for stop voicing in English.