Impressions Of Speakers Research Articles

Speech Synthesis based on Speaker Impression with Hierarchical Discriminator GAN

Speech Synthesis based on Speaker Impression with Hierarchical Discriminator GAN

An exploratory study of student, speech–language pathologist and emergency worker impressions of speakers with dysarthria

Purpose To explore the influence of listener profession on impressions of speakers with dysarthria with varying intelligibility using semantic differential scales. M ethod: Three listener groups (undergraduate students, emergency workers, speech–language pathologists (SLPs); n = 38) rated non-speech attributes of six adults with dysarthria that ranged from low to high speech intelligibility. Participants rated 22 bipolar adjective pairs and listening effort on visual analogue scales. Following factor analysis of the semantic differential scales, listener impression and effort ratings were compared across listening groups and speaker intelligibility. Result Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that neither impressions nor effort ratings differed across listener groups. However, impressions significantly decreased and listening effort significantly increased with reduced intelligibility. Analysis of the semantic differential scale items revealed two factors (Capability, Personality) that predicted 52% of the variance. Listener impressions were significantly higher for Personality than Capability. C onclusion: Preliminary findings suggest that speakers with dysarthria with reduced intelligibility are at risk to be negatively judged, particularly on their physical and mental capability. This study demonstrates the promise of employing semantic differential scales to investigate listener impressions and therefore the daily communication experiences of speakers with dysarthria. SLPs should consider patient experience of negative impressions when designing treatment.

목소리의 높이와 빠르기가 화자의 인상형성에 미치는 영향 분석 : 교양 있는 매력과 성격적 특질을 중심으로

목소리의 높이와 빠르기가 화자의 인상형성에 미치는 영향 분석 : 교양 있는 매력과 성격적 특질을 중심으로

Judgements of a speaker's personality are correlated across differing content and stimulus type.

It has previously been shown that first impressions of a speaker’s personality, whether accurate or not, can be judged from short utterances of vowels and greetings, as well as from prolonged sentences and readings of complex paragraphs. From these studies, it is established that listeners’ judgements are highly consistent with one another, suggesting that different people judge personality traits in a similar fashion, with three key personality traits being related to measures of valence (associated with trustworthiness), dominance, and attractiveness. Yet, particularly in voice perception, limited research has established the reliability of such personality judgements across stimulus types of varying lengths. Here we investigate whether first impressions of trustworthiness, dominance, and attractiveness of novel speakers are related when a judgement is made on hearing both one word and one sentence from the same speaker. Secondly, we test whether what is said, thus adjusting content, influences the stability of personality ratings. 60 Scottish voices (30 females) were recorded reading two texts: one of ambiguous content and one with socially-relevant content. One word (~500 ms) and one sentence (~3000 ms) were extracted from each recording for each speaker. 181 participants (138 females) rated either male or female voices across both content conditions (ambiguous, socially-relevant) and both stimulus types (word, sentence) for one of the three personality traits (trustworthiness, dominance, attractiveness). Pearson correlations showed personality ratings between words and sentences were strongly correlated, with no significant influence of content. In short, when establishing an impression of a novel speaker, judgments of three key personality traits are highly related whether you hear one word or one sentence, irrespective of what they are saying. This finding is consistent with initial personality judgments serving as elucidators of approach or avoidance behaviour, without modulation by time or content. All data and sounds are available on OSF (osf.io/s3cxy).

名古屋方言の使用が話し手の印象に及ぼす影響 : Matched-guise techniqueを用いて

名古屋方言の使用が話し手の印象に及ぼす影響 : Matched-guise techniqueを用いて

I speak fast when I move fast: the speed of illusory self-motion (vection) modulates the speed of utterances

Speed of utterance is an important factor in smooth and efficient conversation. We report a technique to increase utterance speed and that might improve a speaker's impression and information efficiency in conversation. We used a visual display consisting of optic flows in a large visual field that induced participants' illusory self-motion perception (vection). The speed of vection corresponded to the speed of the optic flows. Using this method, we investigated whether vection speed affects utterance speed. We presented fast- and slow-moving optic flow stimuli while dynamically swapping random dots presented to participants, during which time the participants were asked to talk for 2 min. Results revealed that the utterance speed was significantly faster in the fast optic flow condition. Our method could be a stepping stone for establishing a technique of modulating speech speed effectively.

Narrating near-histories: The effects of counterfactual communication on motivation and performance

While research on counterfactuals has demonstrated that thinking counterfactually (imagining how past events could have been different) improves organizationally relevant outcomes, little is known about the effects of narrating these near-histories, or explicitly communicating counterfactuals, on these outcomes. In this article, I advance a framework for understanding the counterfactual communication-performance relationship. Building on previous work linking counterfactual communication with impression formation, I propose that counterfactual communication influences motivation and subsequent performance through its effects on impression formation. Findings from an experiment demonstrated that individuals who received upward counterfactuals (thoughts of how things could have been better) were more motivated than were those who received downward counterfactuals (thoughts of how things could have been worse), and this motivation led to superior performance. Additionally, receivers’ impressions of speakers mediated this relationship.

音声中の抑揚の大きさと変化パターンが話者の性格印象に与える影響

This study reports systematic relations between intonations and impressions of speakers' personality. Fundamental frequencies (F0) of stimuli were transformed to emphasize pitch modulations, and unfamiliar intonations for native speakers were generated by reversing pitches. In the first experiment, 66 university students were asked to rate personality images on speech stimuli with the Big Five categories. In the second experiment, 54 participants rated the same stimuli regarding mimetic words, which describe personality characteristics. Results showed that emphases of intonation contours independently affected personality impression traits. Relations between the degree of emphases in intonations and the personality traits were described by simple or reverse U-shaped curves, whose peak positions and slopes were varied by traits. By combining these characteristic curves, the study could restore the personality image as a whole via speech. Although participants evaluated speeches with unfamiliar intonation as obscure talks, the speakers were viewed easygoing and optimistic. The results indicate our tolerance toward the people, who speak non-native or unfamiliar dialect accent.

音声の発話速度と休止時間が話者の性格印象と自然なわかりやすさに与える影響

音声中の実音声区間と休止区間の時間配分と, 話者の性格印象, 音声の自然性との関係を検討した。パラグラフ・レベルの音声材料を用いて, 大学生581名を被験者として聴覚実験を行った。実音声時間長は, 性格印象, 自然性に特徴的な影響を与えていた。休止時間長の違いによる影響は比較的小さかった。実音声部の発話速度の変化に伴う性格印象の変化パターンは, Big Fiveの特性ごとに固有の2次回帰式で近似できた。勤勉性は速い発話で評価が高く, 遅くなると急峻に低下した。協調性では逆に, 速い発話で評価が低く, 遅い発話で高かった。外向性と経験への開放性はやや速い発話で評価が高く, より速くても遅くても下降した。情緒不安定性には影響は見られなかった。自然性はオリジナルの時間長で評価が最も高く, より速くても遅くても左右対称の形状で低下した。これらのことから音声の変換に伴う自然性の低下の影響は皆無とは言えないまでも, 性格特性ごとの独自性が確認された。この結果は, 性格印象全体の複雑な変化を捉えるために, 音声の時間構造の変化に応じて性格特性ごとに特性値を近似関数で推定し, その推定値を組合せて全体像を捉えるというモデルを支持するものであった。

Speaker Evaluation Measures of Language Attitudes: Evidence of Information-Processing Effects

Language attitudes are often inferred from hearers' evaluative reactions to speech variations. However, the study of information processing suggests that speaker evaluations may also be sensitive to the conditions under which hearers develop impressions of speakers. If so, even greater caution should be exercised in the use of such evaluations as a measure of language attitudes. In order to test the potential effect of information processing on speaker evaluations, an experiment was conducted in which hearers evaluated speakers under a condition of time constraint, and again under a condition representative of a typical language attitude study. Results indicated that evaluations of a female African-American Vernacular English speaker were affected. A subsequent experiment provides evidence regarding the likelihood of an alternative explanation for these results.

Effects of the speech rate on speakers' personality-trait impressions

This study found non-linear functional relations between speech-rate and impressions of speakers' personality-traits. University students (N = 376) evaluated speakers' personality impressions for speech sounds that were converted at different speech-rates from the original utterance spoken by four Japanese and four native English speakers. A short version of the Big Five Scale based on the five-factor model of personality was used. Factor analysis showed that listeners recognized each personality-trait independently through speech sounds, and that speech-rate affected personality impressions of speakers differently depending on the traits. Multiple regression analysis revealed that quadratic regression equations could provide good approximations of personality-trait values, and all the non-linear relationships were described fairly well. The locations of the peaks and the spread of the quadratic functions vary from trait to trait. The complex metamorphosis of personality impressions via speech-rate converted sounds can be inferred by combining those five curves. Finally, participants showed more sensitive responses to Japanese speakers than to English speakers.

Luck, envy and gratitude: It could have been different

Previous studies have shown that people feel lucky in situations that could easily have turned into something worse. The present investigation was designed to focus more closely on the comparative aspect of luck, using a linguistic approach (Study 1 and 2) as well as self‐reports of perceived luck accompanying selected emotional episodes (Study 3). The participants in Study 1 were asked to comment upon the difference between describing a state of affairs as “lucky” vs. “good”. The term “lucky“ was frequently seen to imply a comparison process, sometimes expressing gratitude (“It is lucky I have a family”) and at other times envy (“it is lucky you have a job”). This was confirmed in Study 2 where statements about self and other being lucky or unlucky were rated for implying comparison, gratitude, envy, concern, and impression of speaker. In Study 3, 60 students described situations in which they had felt grateful towards other people as well as towards “life in general”. Questionnaire answers revealed that they also had felt very lucky and had been thinking “it could have been different”. They also produced recollections of envy, which were rated to imply others' good luck and own bad luck, which could easily have been interchanged (“it could have been merdquo;). It is concluded that counterfactual thoughts are decisive for the experiences of luck, gratitude, and envy.

The Relationship of Paralinguistic Cues to Impression Formation and the recall of Medical Messages

This study investigated the relationship of paralinguistic cues to impression formation and the recall of medical messages. Specifically, we examined listeners' impressions of speakers and their ability to recall an audiotaped medical message presented by a hypothetical physician. The message presented information about diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis for either a low-serious (strep throat) or high-serious (diabetes) illness, with rate of speech and pitch variation altered by the speaker. The results indicated the presence of three impression factors: Personal Competence, Social Attractiveness, and Professional Competence. Variations in paralinguistic cues and seriousness of illness significantly influenced impressions of the speaker. However, there were few significant relationships between variations in paralanguage and recall. Implications of these findings for future research in health communication are discussed.

Cognitive representation of conversations about persons.

Ss listened to a man and woman discuss the behaviors of a third, target person. First, however, they received handwritten sets of trait adjectives that each speaker had ostensibly used to describe the target before engaging in the conversation. Ss with the objective of forming an impression of the target person had better recall of behaviors if they were evaluatively inconsistent with the female speaker's trait description of the target. However, the behaviors' consistency with the male speaker's description of the target had little influence. When Ss listened to the conversation with instructions to infer each speaker's impression of the target, they typically had better recall of behaviors that were inconsistent with trait descriptions provided by the particular speaker who mentioned them. When they were told to form impressions of the speakers themselves, however, Ss had generally better recall of the behaviors mentioned by a given speaker when they were inconsistent with the trait description provided by the other speaker. Existing models of person memory and judgment could not account a priori for either these results or for judgments of the target and speakers.

Listeners' impressions of speakers with and without hearing losses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate listeners' ratings of normal hearing and hearing‐impaired speakers' on the following four a priori factors: intelligence, achievement, personality, and appearance. Additionally, alterations in listener ratings were investigated as a function of whether or not subjects wore hearing aids regardless of speaker types. Recorded speech samples of four normal hearing, four hard of hearing, and four deaf children were used as audio stimuli; and two photographic slides of each child (one showing him wearing a hearing aid, and one showing him not wearing a hearing aid) served as visual stimuli. The stimuli were heard and seen by 150 normal listeners who rated various characteristics of the speakers on a semantic differential scale. Ratings were submitted to a multivariate analysis which revealed that listeners' impressions of speakers were “more negative” both when the speaker had “hearing‐impaired” speech and when his photograph showed him wearing a hearing aid.

Listeners' Impressions of Speakers with Lateral Lisps

This paper reports research conducted to determine whether the lateral lisp is a speech defect. The specific purpose of this research was to determine whether the lateral lisp calls adverse attention to the speaker. Two groups of broadcast communication students rates the concept "The Person Speaking" on a 49-scale semantic differential. One group performed the task after listening to a tape recording of a young woman reading contextual material with a simulated lateral lisp. The other group performed the task after listening to a recording of the same woman reading the material in a normal manner. Analyses of the scale values computed for the two conditions indicated that the lateral lisp called adverse attention to the speaker. A systematic replication was undertaken to assess the generality of this finding. The procedures of the original investigation were followed except that business administration students served as judges. The results replicated those of the original investigation. These data indicate that the lateral lisp is probably a speech defect and suggest that the practice of eliminating school speech services for children whose only speech difference is a lateral lisp should be reconsidered.

Speaker's Scale of Vocal Effort

When a speaker judges the subjective magnitude of his own vocal effort, a power function describes the relation between perceived magnitude and the actual sound pressure produced. Speakers were asked to give numerical estimates of the apparent strength of their own vocal productions, or, conversely, to produce vocal levels in response to numerical criteria stated by the experimenter. The combined evidence from both procedures indicates that the speaker's impression of his own vocal level grows approximately as the 1.1 power of the sound pressure he produces. The power laws governing vocal effort (exponent 1.1) and loudness (exponent 0.6) call be used to predict successfully the outcome of cross-modality comparisons in which subjects try to match their vocal level to criterion sounds of various intensities presented either by loudspeaker or by earphone. The slope of the matching function relating the criterion SPL to the vocal SPL is given by the ratio of the two exponents. What this means is that speakers do not judge their vocal level by listening to themselves, for the sound pressure they produce when they try to match a criterion sound does not grow as fast as the sound pressure of the criterion sound.