Salience of cochlear implant users’ speech rate

Abstract

Speech rate-matching is a form of rapid accommodation in which speakers adapt their speech rates to match their interlocutor’s previous utterance. Such responsiveness may contribute to rhythmic convergence between speakers throughout a conversation. However, little is known about interactions between typical speakers and those with speech or hearing difficulties. In recent work, prelingually deaf cochlear implant (CI) users were poorer rate-matchers than their peers, but it was unclear whether interlocutors accommodated toward CI users’ speech rates, which can vary widely between individuals. A follow-up study adapted procedures from work in which participants rate-matched toward fast- and slow-talking Parkinson’s patients. Surprisingly, people did not rate-match to either CI users or controls. This study explores one possible explanation: that differences in speech rate were not salient enough for participants to modify their own rates in response. Following previous procedures, participants (a) alternated hearing CI users’ sentences and reading other sentences, (b) rated CI users’ utterances as fast, slow, or neither, and (c) repeated the first task with different stimuli. Results will show whether participants were able to identify differences in speech rate (when prompted) and whether they improved in speech rate-matching after speech rate was brought to their attention.Speech rate-matching is a form of rapid accommodation in which speakers adapt their speech rates to match their interlocutor’s previous utterance. Such responsiveness may contribute to rhythmic convergence between speakers throughout a conversation. However, little is known about interactions between typical speakers and those with speech or hearing difficulties. In recent work, prelingually deaf cochlear implant (CI) users were poorer rate-matchers than their peers, but it was unclear whether interlocutors accommodated toward CI users’ speech rates, which can vary widely between individuals. A follow-up study adapted procedures from work in which participants rate-matched toward fast- and slow-talking Parkinson’s patients. Surprisingly, people did not rate-match to either CI users or controls. This study explores one possible explanation: that differences in speech rate were not salient enough for participants to modify their own rates in response. Following previous procedures, participants (a) alternat...