Speechreading with and without auditory F0 supplementation: Effects of lexical and sentential context

Abstract

This study examined the effects of lexical and sentential context on speechreading with and without supplementation by an auditory indicator of voice fundamental frequency (F0) in 12 adults with normal hearing. Lexical context effects were assessed by measuring phonetic segment and syllable recognition in CVC words and nonwords. Sentential context effects were assessed by measuring word recognition in normal sentences, in syntactically correct but semantically anomalous sentences, and in isolation (i.e., no context). For the lexical contexts, improved performance was seen by both speechreading plus F0 and speechreading alone in CVC words relative to CVC nonwords. F0 supplementation contributed to improved consonant recognition, presumably due to the provision of cues to voicing presence or absence. For the sentence contexts, F0 supplementation resulted in best recognition of words in normal sentences, while recognition of words in anomalous sentences was comparable to that for words in isolation. By contrast, results by speechreading alone revealed similar recognition of words in normal sentences and words in isolation, and poorer recognition of words in anomalous sentences. The study showed that F0 supplementation significantly enhanced the visual perception of both segments and word and phrase boundaries, and interacted with context. [Work supported by NIH Program Project Grant ♯5PO5DC00178.]