A new method for eliciting three speaking styles in the laboratory

Abstract

In this study, a method was developed to elicit three different speaking styles, reduced, citation, and hyperarticulated, using controlled sentence materials in a laboratory setting. In the first set of experiments, the reduced style was elicited by having twelve talkers read a sentence while carrying out a distractor task that involved recalling from short-term memory an individually-calibrated number of digits. The citation style corresponded to read speech in the laboratory. The hyperarticulated style was elicited by prompting talkers (twice) to reread the sentences more carefully. The results of perceptual tests with naïve listeners and an acoustic analysis showed that six of the twelve talkers produced a reduced style of speech for the test sentences in the distractor task relative to the same sentences in the citation style condition. In addition, all talkers consistently produced sentences in the citation and hyperarticulated styles. In the second set of experiments, the reduced style was elicited by increasing the number of digits in the distractor task by one (a heavier cognitive load). The procedures for eliciting citation and hyperarticulated sentences remained unchanged. Ten talkers were recorded in the second experiment. The results showed that six out of ten talkers differentiated all three styles as predicted (70% of all sentences recorded). In addition, all talkers consistently produced sentences in the citation and hyperarticulated styles. Overall, the results demonstrate that it is possible to elicit controlled sentence stimulus materials varying in speaking style in a laboratory setting, although the method requires further refinement to elicit these styles more consistently from individual participants.

Intelligibility of Clear Speech: Effect of Instruction

“…The habitual condition, wherein speakers were instructed to read the sentences, was elicited first. All speakers were then instructed to read the sentences “while speaking clearly” (clear condition; Ferguson, 2004; Ferguson & Kewley-Port, 2007; Harnsberger et al, 2008), allowing participants to determine what this meant (Ferguson, 2004). The clear condition was always elicited after the habitual condition to reduce any influence of instruction from the following hearing impaired and overenunciate conditions.…”

“…For example, studies have instructed participants to “hyperarticulate” (Dromey, 2000; Feijoo, Fernandez, & Balsa, 1999; Moon & Lindblom, 1994), “speak to someone with a hearing impairment or someone from a different language background” (Bradlow & Bent, 2002; Bradlow et al, 2003), or “speak clearly” (Ferguson, 2004; Ferguson & Kewley-Port, 2007; Harnsberger, Wright, & Pisoni, 2008). Picheny et al (1985) elicited clear speech using a combination of the definitions listed above.…”

“…In their acoustic study, sentences produced by 12 speakers were elicited in four speaking conditions, including habitual, clear, hearing impaired, and overenunciate. The latter three conditions were variants of clear speech instructions used in previously published studies (Bradlow & Bent, 2002; Bradlow et al, 2003; Dromey, 2000; Feijoo et al, 1999; Ferguson, 2004; Ferguson & Kewley-Port, 2007; Harnsberger et al, 2008; Moon & Lindblom, 1994). For the habitual condition, speakers were instructed to “say the following sentences.” For the clear, hearing impaired, and overenunciate conditions, speakers were specifically instructed to “speak clearly,” “talk to someone with a hearing impairment,” or “overenunciate/hyperarticulate,” respectively.…”

Análise acústica da fala suavizada: estudo de caso em gagueira

“…De maneira geral, os dados de duração são compatíveis com a chamada "fala hipoarticulada" (Farnetani, 1997;Harnsberger et al, 2008), o que é coerente com a instrução fornecida ao sujeito (articular com mais suavidade). Tendo em vista que a duração fônica está diretamente correlacionada com a amplitude dos gestos articulatórios e não à maior velocidade de execução do movimento (Dromey & Ramig, 1998;Munhall, Ostry & Parush, 1985;, os resultados sugerem que a redução da tensão articulatória ocasionou gestos de menor amplitude.…”

“…F3 está relacionado à ressonância, porque seus valores estão correlacionados com as constrições labial, faríngea e velofaríngea (Johnson, 1997). Portanto, tendo em vista que a suavização não alterou a configuração formântica, conclui-se que não houve mudança na precisão articulatória com o uso da estratégia (Harnsberger et al, 2008). Prosek et al (1987) analisaram os primeiros dois formantes vocálicos de adultos com e sem gagueira.…”