Spoken Responses Research Articles

Mean Length of Spoken Response as a Function of Stimulus, Experimenter, and Subject

Mean length of response (MLR) is the average number of words per remark emitted by Ss in responding to stimuli; in this case the stimuli were pictures. 96 Ss, equal numbers of male and female upperand lower-socioeconomic status children at each of 4 ages (5, 7, 9, and 11), were individually tested by 1 of 2 Es. It was found that the stimulus influenced the length of response; that age, sex, and socioeconomic status effects interacted; and that the E effect interacted with the age and sex of Ss. While few studies now use the MLR measure, current textbooks are consistently drawing invalid conclusions based on previous MLR research. The present results also reemphasize the necessity for including an analysis of E effects in any developmental study.

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THREE VARIABLES IN THE PRESENTATION OF AUDIO‐VISUAL TEACHING PROGRAMS

Abstract Two experiments are reported in which different ways of presenting the same audiovisual programs to young children are compared. In Experiment 1 two programs which required relatively short spoken responses were each presented to two matched groups of children; in each case self‐pacing was used for one group and machine‐pacing for the other. No advantage was demonstrated for the self‐pacing condition. In Experiment 2, two variables were investigated: individual or group presentation and spoken or written responses. Four matched groups were presented with a program under one of the following four combinations of conditions: spoken‐individual, Written‐individual, spoken‐group and written‐group. More learning was achieved under the individual than under the group presentation conditions and with written than with spoken responses.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF SPEECH RATE AND MESSAGE VERIFICATION PROCEDURES

Abstract Speech output devices are currently in development stages in the computer industry. These devices will permit an operator to perform an enquiry to a computer and receive a spoken response message. This study investigated speech rates and verification procedures with a simulated speech output device. Operators were required to write an alphanumeric response message during message transmission. Three speech rates were investigated : 45, 60 and 75 characters per minute (e.p.m.). The results showed the 60 c.p.m. to be the most favourable in terms of operator accuracy and preference. Three procedures of verifying response messages were investigated : Required Verification, Optional Verification, and No Verification. The results showed the Optional Verification method to be the most efficient.

Loudness of speaking: the effect of heard stimuli on spoken responses.

Twenty‐five subjects heard recorded words at five levels of loudness. The subjects heard the recorded stimuli over headsets and were asked to repeat the words in a normal manner. The loudnesses with which the repetitions were made were noted from a Sound Level Meter, the microphone for which was eight inches in front of the speaker's lips. The same procedure was followed, using as stimulus materials sentence questions that required obvious one‐word responses. In both instances, the subjects spoke with a loudness proportional to the intensity of the signal. In a follow‐up experiment, subjects were instructed that normal behavior was to increase vocal loudness in keeping with signal strength and asked to maintain a constant level of loudness irrespective of the intensity of the signal. The subjects were unable to follow these instructions.

Loudness of Speaking: The Effect of Heard Stimuli on Spoken Responses

Twenty-five subjects heard recorded words at five levels of loudness. The subjects heard the recorded stimuli over headsets and were asked to repeat the words in a normal manner. The loudnesses with which the repetitions were made were noted from a Sound Level Meter, the microphone for which was eight inches in front of the speaker's lips. The same procedure was followed, using as stimulus materials sentence questions that required obvious one-word responses. In both instances, the subjects spoke with a loudness proportional to the intensity of the signal. In a follow-up experiment, subjects were instructed that normal behavior was to increase vocal loudness in keeping with signal strength and asked to maintain a constant level of loudness irrespective of the intensity of the signal. The subjects were unable to follow these instructions.

A Basic Sight Vocabulary

Teachers of all grades, from Grade II on, find pupils who have very small or no sight vocabularies. The teachers wish to remedy this condition by drilling on the sight words that will be of most value to these children in their reading. But which are those sight words? The vocabulary of a particular primer will not do because the child's reading is now chiefly in books other than the basal series with which he started and also because the vocabularies of most primers contain many words that, though needed at the primer stage, are later not of general usefulness. No standard word list will do because all such lists contain five hundred words or more, too many to be given drill as a sight vocabulary. In view of these facts, it may well be assumed that the most essential of the words that are basic to children's reading, and therefore needed as a sight vocabulary, will surely be included in all the best lists of words used by children. A comparison of those lists was therefore the logical means of securing a basic sight vocabulary. The first list considered was naturally the vocabulary published by the Child Study Committee of the International Kindergarten Union,' which is a summary of many studies in this field. This list contains 2,596 words, which are the most frequent of 7,000 different words found to be known to children before entering Grade I. It was found that, if the words of a frequency of 1oo or more (inflected forms being combined) were chosen from this list, a total of 510 words was secured, which is about the number of words on the other two lists which were used. The second list was the first five hundred of the