Abstract
Dynamic pitch, also known as intonation, conveys both semantic and pragmatic meaning in speech communication. While alteration of this cue is detrimental to speech intelligibility in noise, the mechanism involved is poorly understood. Using the psychophysiological measure of task-evoked pupillary response, this study examined the perceptual effect of altered dynamic pitch cues on speech perception in noise. The data showed that pupil dilation increased with dynamic pitch strength in a sentence recognition in noise task. Taken together with recognition accuracy data, the results suggest the involvement of perceptual arousal in speech perception with dynamic pitch alteration.
Highlights
Dynamic pitch, as defined by the variation in fundamental frequency of speech, is one of the major acoustic cues in speech
Using the psychophysiological measure of task-evoked pupillary response, this study examined the perceptual effect of altered dynamic pitch cues on speech perception in noise
Taken together with recognition accuracy data, the results suggest the involvement of perceptual arousal in speech perception with dynamic pitch alteration
Summary
As defined by the variation in fundamental frequency of speech, is one of the major acoustic cues in speech. Braun and colleagues altered the pitch contour of Dutch sentences by replacing it with a sinusoidal pattern, either by resynthesis or natural production.9 Their data demonstrated a detrimental effect of the altered intonation on processing speed and accuracy across multiple tasks including word monitoring, lexical decision, and semantic categorization. In a lexical decision task that was designed to direct listeners’ attention away from prosody, the ERP data showed early and non-voluntary processing of prosodic valence This finding suggests prosodic cues such as dynamic pitch can influence physiological measures even when listeners were not engaging in active processing of prosodic information. Built upon the previous studies, it is hypothesized that altered dynamic pitch can make speech sound more exciting and induce changes in arousal level during speech perception, which can only be demonstrated by pupil response but not intelligibility measure. The pupil response data, could be influenced by perceptual arousal due to dynamic pitch cues and show a more complex pattern
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