The direct magnitude‐estimation scaling technique was used to investigate listener perception of vocal loudness and vocal effort of a continuous speech sample. Three experimental conditions were developed that represented (1) normal changes in loudness and effort; (2) intensity held constant and effort varied; and (3) intensity varied and effort held constant. The experiment was conducted twice, once with all stimuli low‐pass filtered below 2000 Hz and once unfiltered. The speech samples were judged by five normal‐hearing listeners on the magnitudes of loudness and of the amount of effort used by the speaker during phonation. Exponents of the loudness and effort functions suggested that vocal loudness and effort were different percepts of the listener. A likely cue that listeners use in perceiving vocal effort was suggested to be the change in the speaker's fundamental frequency concomitant with increases vocal effort.