Abstract
Research shows that acoustic modifications in clearly enunciated fricative consonants (relative to the plain, conversational productions) facilitate auditory fricative perception. However, clear-speech effects on visual fricative perception have received less attention. A comparison of auditory and visual (facial) clear-fricative perception is particularly interesting since sibilant fricatives in English are more auditorily salient while non-sibilants are more visually salient. This study thus examines clear-speech effects on audio-visual perception of English sibilant and non-sibilant fricatives. Native English perceivers and non-native perceivers with different L1 fricative inventories (Mandarin, Korean) identified clear and plain fricative-vowel syllables in audio-only (AO), visual-only (VO), and audio-visual (AV) modes. The results across perceiver groups and speech styles showed an overall visual benefit and auditory dominance (AV>AO>VO). Comparisons of styles revealed clear-speech benefits in AO across fricatives and groups, but different patterns were noted in the visual conditions. In VO and AV, clear speech helped the more visually salient non-sibilant identification for native perceivers; however, clear-speech benefits were less prominent in non-natives’ perception of the non-sibilants, which are non-existent in their L1s. These findings are discussed in terms of the relative audio-visual weighting that benefits perception in clear speech as a function of input saliency and perceiver experience.
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