Psychological Influences on Voice Production: An Exploration of Emotional and Cognitive Processes

Voice Production is a complicated balance within the systems of respiration, phonation, resonation, and articulation.  What we know about this balance can help create training and rehabilitation strategies in the voice studio and voice clinic.  However, beyond these physiological factors, deeper psychological factors influence voice production and without a solid understanding of the psychosocial influences on voice production, even the best training tools can be rendered insufficient. 

This workshop will cover the major psychological domains of emotion and cognition and how these domains interact with the physiological systems of voicing and speech.

The workshop will include a brief introduction to the domains of attention, working memory, self-regulation, interoception, effort, threat sensitivity, and reward seeking behaviours, providing solid theoretical foundations of each domain and how these domains interact with the systems of voice and speech.

Following theoretical instruction, the workshop will present how research investigates each domain, how specific research paradigms in the psychological sciences are modified to address the unique neurological underpinnings of motor behaviour in voice and speech, and why modifications are necessary.

Following a discussion on the research into each domain, the workshop will discuss how research findings can be applied to pedagogical and clinical practice.

Lastly, the workshop will discuss how these basic psychological domains contribute to higher level psychological processes such as the sense of self (including impression management), confidence, performance anxiety, and practice behaviours.

This workshop will include didactic presentations and topic directed discussions.