Effects Of Speech Rate Research Articles

Speech rate effects upon intelligibility and acceptability of dysarthric speech

Sentences recorded by four speakers with dysarthria and two control speakers were presented to listeners at three different rates: habitual, a 30% slower rate and a 30% higher rate. Rate changes were made by digitally manipulating the habitual sentences. Thirty young normal adult listeners rated the sentences for intelligibility (per cent correct words) and acceptability (via 9‐point equal interval scale ranging from “terrible” through “excellent”). Intelligibility for each speaker remained unchanged across rate changes. Acceptability improved as rates increased for the two more intelligible impaired speakers. For the less intelligible impaired speakers, ratings were better and similar for the habitual and fast speaking rate conditions. Results are discussed in terms of the objective nature of intelligibility ratings vs. the subjective ratings of acceptability.

Remapping Auditory-Motor Representations in Voice Production

Evidence regarding visually guided limb movements suggests that the motor system learns and maintains neural maps between motor commands and sensory feedback. Such systems are hypothesized to be used in a feed-forward control strategy that permits precision and stability without the delays of direct feedback control. Human vocalizations involve precise control over vocal and respiratory muscles. However, little is known about the sensorimotor representations underlying speech production. Here, we manipulated the heard fundamental frequency of the voice during speech to demonstrate learning of auditory-motor maps. Mandarin speakers repeatedly produced words with specific pitch patterns (tone categories). On each successive utterance, the frequency of their auditory feedback was increased by 1/100 of a semitone until they heard their feedback one full semitone above their true pitch. Subjects automatically compensated for these changes by lowering their vocal pitch. When feedback was unexpectedly returned to normal, speakers significantly increased the pitch of their productions beyond their initial baseline frequency. This adaptation was found to generalize to the production of another tone category. However, results indicate that a more robust adaptation was produced for the tone that was spoken during feedback alteration. The immediate aftereffects suggest a global remapping of the auditory-motor relationship after an extremely brief training period. However, this learning does not represent a complete transformation of the mapping; rather, it is in part target dependent.

Aural Habilitation Update: The Role of Speech Production Skills of Infants and Children With Hearing Loss

Aural Habilitation Update: The Role of Speech Production Skills of Infants and Children With Hearing Loss

Emotion-related effects of speech rate and rising vs. falling background music melody during audio news: the moderating influence of personality

We examined the personality-related differences in people’s emotional and other responses to news messages with a slow vs. a fast speech rate and a rising vs. a falling background music melody. Personality was measured with the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS)/Behavioural Activation System (BAS) scales and the Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire. Physiological parameters studied were electrodermal activity (EDA), pulse transit time, and interbeat intervals. Several findings consistent with the similarity-attraction theory emerged. For example, subjects scoring high on the BAS, Activity, and Aggression-Hostility dimensions reacted more positively to the news with a fast compared to a slow speech rate. The rising-melody news also elicited higher EDA than the falling-melody news among high BAS scorers. The results suggest that users may be attracted to media messages with audio characteristics manifesting emotions or a personality similar to their own.

Perceptual rate normalization in naturally produced bilabial stops

The perception of voicing categories is affected by the speaking rate, so that listeners’ category boundaries on a VOT continuum shift to a lower value when the syllable duration decreases (Miller and Volaitis, 1989; Volaitis and Miller, 1992). Previous rate normalization effects have been found using computer-generated stimuli. This study examines the effect of speech rate on voicing categorization in naturally produced speech. Four native speakers of American English repeated syllables (/bi/ and /pi/) at increasing rates in time with a metronome. Three-syllable stimuli were spliced from the repetitive speech. These stimuli contained natural decreases in VOT with faster speech rates. Besides, this rate effect on VOT was larger for /p/ than /b/, so that VOT values for /b/ and /p/ overlapped at the fastest rates. Eighteen native listeners of American English were presented with 168 stimuli and asked to identify the consonant. Perceptual category boundaries occur at VOT values 15 ms shorter than the values reported for synthesized stimuli. This difference may be due to the extraordinarily wide range of VOT values in previous studies. The values found in the current study closely match the actual division point for /b/ and /p/. The underlying mechanism of perceptual normalization will be discussed.

Time versus Pause Manipulation in Communications Directed to the Young Adult Population: Does It Matter?

In verbal, one-way marketing communication, e.g., radio advertising, the only cues that the target customer has are voice related. Competitive and financial considerations dictate that advertisers use the most cost-effective means to accomplish their communication objectives. Using a two-step approach, this study examines, first, the effect of speech rate on young adult listener responses to verbal advertising. The second phase of the study seeks to identify significant differences when different methods of speech sampling (time- or pause compressed/expanded) are used to produce the faster/slower speech rates. Results indicate that faster speech rates affect the number of affective responses and the attitude toward the message while slower speech rates elicit more cognitive processing by young adult listeners. The use of pause only expansion to produce the slow speech rate accentuates the level of cognitive processing and attitude toward the message. Recognition of these effects allows the advertising strategist to further refine targeted message delivery.

Time Versus Pause Manipulation in communications directed to the young adult population: does it matter?

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> In verbal, one-way marketing communication, e.g., radio advertising, the only cues that the target customer has are voice related. Competitive and financial considerations dictate that advertisers use the most cost-effective means to accomplish their communication objectives. Using a two-step approach, this study examines, first, the effect of speech rate on young adult listener responses to verbal advertising. The second phase of the study seeks to identify significant differences when different methods of speech sampling (time- or pause compressed/expanded) are used to produce the faster/slower speech rates. Results indicate that faster speech rates affect the number of affective responses and the attitude toward the message while slower speech rates elicit more cognitive processing by young adult listeners. The use of pause only expansion to produce the slow speech rate accentuates the level of cognitive processing and attitude toward the message. Recognition of these effects allows the advertising strategist to further refine targeted message delivery.

The Effect of Local Speaking Rate on the Perception of Quantity in Estonian

The Estonian language with its elaborate system of contrasts in quantity, whose essentials are described in the paper, is used to investigate human perception of distinctive contrasts in the duration of vowels, consonants and larger units. In the experiments reported, the speaking rate of a preceding or following syllable was manipulated in addition to that of a target V, C or VC sequence that carried a quantity distinction in disyllabic words. The results confirmed that the second syllable in such words, in particular the duration of its vowel, serves as a reference, but they showed segments of additional syllables to contribute in the same direction. The results provided no support for ascribing quantity to any larger units than phonetic segments. Speech rate effects of similar magnitude have been observed in Japanese, while effects of the same kind were found to be smaller in Dutch. These differences may be linked with the functions durational contrasts have in the different languages. It appears that listeners have to adapt more fully to variations in the local speaking rate when there are no additional cues and the functional load of quantity distinctions is high.

Effects of age, speech rate, and environmental support in using telephone voice menu systems.

Age differences in the use of telephone menu systems were investigated in two experiments. Participants from three age groups (younger: 18-39; middle-aged: 40-59; older: 60+ years) were required to obtain specified information or perform some action using simulated voice menu systems. Measures reflecting task performance, menu navigation, and subjective responses were collected. The focus in Experiment 1 was on examining the effect of speech rate. Data from 196 participants indicated age differences in performance, especially for complex problems. There was no effect of speech rate on any of the performance measures. Experiment 2 examined two types of support devices: a screen phone and a graphical aid. Data from 114 participants indicated that the screen phone provided some benefits in navigational efficiency. In terms of performance, the older participants benefited more from the graphical aid and the younger participants performed better with the screen phone. Actual or potential applications of this research include guidance in the use of support devices that can reduce memory demands and the identification of appropriate speech rates.

Contribution of speech rate to speech perception in multichannel cochlear implant users.

This study describes the effect of speech rate (fast, 11 syllables per second; medium, 9 syllables per second; slow, 6 syllables per second) on speech perception in 10 cochlear implant users. The speech perception performance was evaluated on the basis of the percentage score of syllables that were correctly recalled in sentences composed of 4 to 6 words. The percentage scores at the fast, medium, and slow speech rates were 15.7%, 39.0%, and 56.0%, respectively. The effect of speech rate slowing was significant (p < .0001). Variations in the effect of speech rate slowing were observed in the cochlear implant users. The improvement of speech perception by speech rate slowing was significantly (p < .005) related to the word test score and the score at the fast speech rate. The results reveal that the rate of speech is an important factor in improving the speech perception of cochlear implant users.

The effect of fast speech rate on stuttering frequency during delayed auditory feedback

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) has been documented to improve fluency in those who stutter. The increased fluency has been attributed to the slowed speech rate induced by DAF, but recent experiments have suggested that increasing the speech rate may also decrease stuttering under DAF. This investigation described the effect of combining a fast speech rate and DAF on the fluency of four people who stutter. Fluency of the two mildly dysfluent subjects was the same for both no DAF and DAF conditions at normal and at fast oral reading rates. In contrast, the two severely dysfluent subjects improved in fluency from the no DAF to the DAF conditions. They were found to be dysfluent at both normal and fast oral reading rates without DAF. The results of the study point to the need for further research on the relationship between speech rate and stuttering frequency under conditions of DAF and no DAF. Educational objectives: Readers will learn about and be able to describe how the frequency of stuttering is affected by: (1) speech rates; (2) DAF; and (3) how stuttering severity influences such effects.

The Association between Auditory Memory Span and Speech Rate in Children from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade

This study reexamined the association between speech rate and memory span in children from kindergarten to sixth grade (N = 152) in order to potentially account for the inconsistencies within the published literature on this topic. Some of the inconsistencies in past research may reflect the different methods adopted in assessing speech rate. In particular, repeating word triples may itself involve memory demands, contaminating the correlation between speech rate and memory span in younger children. Analyses using composite speech rate and memory span measures showed that speech rate for word triples shared variance with memory span that was independent of speech rate for single words. Moreover, speech rate for word triples was largely redundant with age in explaining additional variation in memory span once the effects of speech rate for single words were controlled.

Error Monitoring in Speech Production: A Computational Test of the Perceptual Loop Theory

A theory of speech monitoring, proposed by Levelt (1983), assumes that the quality of one's speech is checked by the speech comprehension system. This system inspects one's own overt speech but would also inspect an inner speech plan (“the inner loop”). We have elaborated and tested this theory by way of formalizing it as a computational model. This model includes a new proposal concerning the timing relation between planning the interruption and the repair: the proposal that these two processes are performed in parallel. We attempted to simulate empirical data about the distribution of error-to-cutoff and cutoff-to-repair intervals and the effect of speech rate on these intervals (these intervals are shorter with faster speech). The main questions were (1) Is an inner monitor that utilizes the speech perception system fast enough to simulate the timing data? (2) Can the model account for the effects of speech rate on these intervals? We conclude that including an inner loop through the speech comprehension system generates predictions that fit the empirical data. The effects of speed can be accounted for, given our proposal about the time course of planning interruption and repair. A novel prediction is that the error-to-cutoff interval decreases with increasing position in the phrase.

Spoken Language Comprehension in Older Adults: Interactions between Sensory and Cognitive Change in Normal Aging

Adult aging is accompanied by changes in cognitive factors, such as a general slowing in perceptual and cognitive operations, a limitation in working memory capacity, and reduced efficiency of executive function in dividing attention. This article considers how these factors join with changes in hearing ability to affect how well older adults are able to comprehend speech and encode that understanding in memory for later use. Factors receiving special attention are negative effects of rapid speech rates and speech heard in background noise. Also examined are positive effects of linguistic context and effective use of speech prosody in speech comprehension and recall in older adults.

The effects of speech rate and listening experience on the intelligibility of synthesized speech

Some persons with severe communication disorders are only able to communicate effectively using speech synthesizers, although even the most intelligible synthesis systems (e.g., DynaVox-DECTalk) have limitations. Listener success has been reported to vary with listener age, listener experience with synthesized speech, speech rate, and the presence of pauses between words. This series of experiments has examined the effects of listener age and experience, and speech rate and interword pauses on the perception of synthesized speech. Eighty IEEE-Harvard Sentences were presented to four groups of 12 listeners each [children (9–11 years), teens (14–16 years), young adults (20–25 years), and adults (38–45 years)], in two experiments. In the first experiment (40 sentences) speech rate was varied (105, 135, 165, and 195 wpm); in the second experiment (40 sentences), 7–12 days later, interword pauses occurred in half the sentences. Conditions were counterbalanced; no sentence was presented twice. Preliminary results indicate little effect of speech rate but a substantial effect of experience for the children: they improved substantially through experiment 1; the improvement carried over into experiment 2. Parallel results will be presented for all age groups. [Work supported by St. Johns University and New York City Board of Education, Technology Solutions, District 75.]

A redintegration account of the effects of speech rate, lexicality, and word frequency in immediate serial recall.

Short-term serial recall performance is strongly affected by the nature of the items to be remembered. For example, memory span declines with decreasing speech rate (i.e., increasing pronunciation duration) of the items and, for a given speech rate, memory for non-words is poorer than for words. Similarly, words of high natural language frequency are recalled better than low-frequency words. Existing descriptive models have identified redintegration as underlying many of those effects. Redintegration refers to the process by which partially retrieved memorial information is converted into an overt response. This article presents a process model of redintegration based on a non-linear dynamic network, which is shown to handle the effects of speech rate, lexicality, and word frequency on memory span. Unlike previous descriptive efforts, the redintegration model also predicts the shape of the underlying serial position curves.

Lip-jaw and tongue-jaw coordination during rate-controlled syllable repetitions.

The present study investigated the relationship between functionally relevant compound gestures and single-articulator component movements of the jaw and the constrictors lower lip and tongue tip during rate-controlled syllable repetitions. In nine healthy speakers, the effects of speaking rate (3 vs 5 Hz), place of articulation, and vowel type during stop consonant-vowel repetitions (/pa/, /pi/, /ta/, /ti/) on the amplitude and peak velocity of differential jaw and constrictor opening-closing movements were measured by means of electromagnetic articulography. Rather than homogeneously scaled compound gestures, the results suggest distinct control mechanisms for the jaw and the constrictors. In particular, jaw amplitude was closely linked to vowel height during bilabial articulation, whereas the lower lip component amplitude turned out to be predominantly rate sensitive. However, the observed variability across subjects and conditions does not support the assumption that single-articulator gestures directly correspond to basic phonological units. The nonhomogeneous effects of speech rate on articulatory subsystem parameters indicate that single structures are differentially rate sensitive. On average, an increase in speech rate resulted in a more or less proportional increase of the steepness of peak velocity/amplitude scaling for jaw movements, whereas the constrictors were less rate sensitive in this respect. Negative covariation across repetitions between jaw and constrictor amplitudes has been considered an indicator of motor equivalence. Although significant in some cases, such a relationship was not consistently observed across subjects. Considering systematic sources of variability such as vowel height, speech rate, and subjects, jaw-constrictor amplitude correlations showed a nonhomogeneous pattern strongly depending on place of articulation.

The Main and Interactive Effect of Oral Reading Rate on the Frequency of Stuttering

Twenty-four adults participated in a 2 (group) by 3 (rate) factorial study designed to determine the main and interactive effects of speech rate during reading on the frequency of stuttering. In this regard, the participants orally read three passages, one at their normal rate, one that was 30% faster than this rate, and one that was 30% slower. Rate was controlled by means of a computer software program, and passage order and reading rate were counter-balanced. The main effect of rate was significant. There was statistically more stuttering in the fast rate condition than in either the normal or slow rate condition. However, the frequency of stuttering in the normal and the slow rate conditions was not significantly different. Analysis of the experimental data of the eight participants who stuttered the most and the eight who stuttered the least, during base-rate oral readings, evidenced the presence of an interaction between group and rate. Those who stuttered the most showed a statistically significant increase in stuttering between the slow, normal, and fast rate conditions. In contrast, there was no significant difference in frequency between any of the three conditions for the group of eight participants who stuttered the least. These findings suggest that the extent to which rate affects fluency is a function of the degree to which stuttering is displayed. This possibility warrants consideration in relation to the use of rate management procedures.

Effects of Advertisement Speech Rates on Feature Recognition, and Product and Speaker Ratings

Analogue radio commercials were used to investigate the relationship between speech rates and listeners' recognition of message content, and judgements of products and speakers. In Experiment I, immediately after listening to a simulated radio advertisement (Ad) that presented 17 standard features of a fictitious car at one of three different rates (fast=212, medium=113, and slow=56 words per minute) listeners rated the car and speaker and completed a feature recognition task. Those who listened to the fast Ad rated the car significantly higher than those who listened to the medium Ad. In Experiment II, participants performed the feature recognition task and rated the product and speaker 10 minutes after listening to the advertisement. Participants who listened to the medium Ad rated the product significantly higher than those who listened to the fast Ad. Discussion centers around message source and content variables, sleeper effects, and information processing models of attention and memory which may explain the persuasive effects of rapid or compressed speech.

Pitch movements under time pressure: Effects of speech rate on the melodic marking of accents and boundaries in Dutch By Johanna Caspers (review)

Pitch movements under time pressure: Effects of speech rate on the melodic marking of accents and boundaries in Dutch By Johanna Caspers (review)