Perturbations to acoustic speech feedback have been typically localized to specific phonetic characteristics, for example, fundamental frequency (F0) or the first two formants (F1/F2), or affect all aspects of the speech signal equally, for example, via the addition of background noise. This paper examines the consequences of a more selective global perturbation: real-time cochlear implant (CI) simulation of acoustic speech feedback. Specifically, we examine the potential similarity between speakers' response to noise vocoding and the characteristics of Lombard speech. An acoustic analysis of supra-segmental characteristics in speaking rate, F0 production, and voice amplitude revealed changes that paralleled the Lombard effect in some domains but not others. Two studies of speech intelligibility complemented the acoustic analysis, finding that intelligibility significantly decreased as a result of CI simulation of speaker feedback. Together, the results point to differences in speakers' responses to these two superficially similar feedback manipulations. In both cases we see a complex, multi-faceted behavior on the part of talkers. We argue that more instances of global perturbation and broader response assessment are needed to determine whether such complexity is present in other feedback manipulations or if it represents a relatively rare exception to the typical compensatory feedback response.
In this study, we explore the juncture of real-time feedback-based changes in speech production and those initiated by top-down knowledge of external factors such as audience characteristics or audience listening conditions. Twenty-four speakers were asked to solve interactive puzzles via remote auditory connection with an experimenter under five signal transmission conditions: normal/baseline, increased signal amplitude, decreased amplitude, + 100 cents shift in pitch, and −100 cents shift in pitch. Evidence of these changes was available to talkers only through the speech of the experimenter; no sidetone was introduced in the connection and listening conditions for talkers were otherwise normal. In response to hearing amplitude shifts in their partner’s speech, 19/24 talkers significantly altered their mean voice amplitude, while 6/24 altered f0 in response to shifted experimenter vocal pitch (RM-ANOVA, all corrected p’s < 0.05). Approximately 30% of responses countered the signal manipulation (e.g., f0 increase in response to low experimenter f0), while the remainder imitated the observed change. This combination of perturbation-like compensation and imitation/accommodation suggests that speakers can interpret transmission circumstances differently, or pursue different speech-related goals, during even very simple, constrained tasks.
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