Whispered and Lombard speech : different ways to exaggerate articulation

When speaking in noise (Lombard speech) talkers exaggerate their articulation compared to speaking in quiet. The current study compared motion exaggeration in this speech style with whispered speech by measuring talker’s lip and jaw, and eyebrow and head motion. Four talkers uttered sentences in quiet, noise or in whisper while their face and head movements were recorded with optical tracking. The results showed that both Lombard and whispered speech had movements of greater duration and amplitude than speech in quiet. For half the participants, whispered speech had greater motion than Lombard, whereas the other half showed the opposite pattern

Detecting auditory-visual speech synchrony : how precise?

Previous research suggests that people are rather poor at perceiving auditory-visual (AV) speech asynchrony, especially when the visual signal occurs first. However, estimates of AV synchrony detection depend on many factors and previous measures may have underestimated its precision. Here we used a synchrony-driven search task to examine how accurately an observer could detect AV speech synchrony. In this task on each trial a participant viewed four videos (positioned at the cardinal points of a circle) that showed the lower face of a talker while hearing a spoken /ba/ syllable. One video had the original AV timing, in the others the visual speech was shifted 100 ms, 200 ms or 300 ms earlier. Participants were required to conduct a speeded visual search for the synchronized face/voice token (the position of which was randomized). The results showed that the synchrony detection window was narrow with 82% of responses selecting either the original unaltered video (29%) or the video where the visual signal led by 100 ms (53%). These results suggest that an observer is able to judge AV speech synchrony with some precision

Thai-specific and general reading processes in developing and skilled Thai readers

In a recent review, Share (2008) has argued that current reading research and practice has in large part been shaped by a concentration on English that has confined reading science to a domain that has limited relevance for a universal science of reading. Share’s point is that the investigation of diverse reading systems makes possible both the discovery of properties that are unique to particular languages and of properties that are common to them all. In this chapter, we introduce some properties of the Thai writing system that differ markedly from English. We then review some of our recent experimental findings with both developing and skilled Thai readers and draw out similarities and differences with those found with English readers. We consider findings from tests that range from a short-term priming technique that probes print-to-sound mapping to those examining the metalinguistic skills associated with the awareness of lexical tone. We also consider how the profile of performance for good and poor Thai developing readers on some basic perceptual and language tasks fits with the specific information-processing demands presented by the Thai writing system. In all, we identify patterns of results that are consistent with those found for English (problems in processing print-to-sound connections appear to be a common feature of reading difficulties) and also those results that most likely arise due to the specifics of Thai. We end by considering what these results suggest about the project for understanding unique and universal aspects of the process of reading

The effect of visual speech timing and form cues on the processing of speech and nonspeech

Auditory speech processing is facilitated when the talker's face and head movements (visual speech) can be seen. This effect occurs over a range of spoken word tasks, e.g., for spoken word identification (determining which word was presented) and for speech detection (determining whether speech was presented). This study examined the effect of providing two types of visual cue on the speed of determining whether a speech or non-speech sound was presented. Speech stimuli consisted of spoken non words and non-speech stimuli which were the spectrally inverted-versions of these. These stimuli were presented paired with either the talker's static or moving face. Two types of moving face stimuli were used: full-face versions where both spoken form and timing cues were available and modified face versions where only the timing cues provided by peri-oral motion were available (i.e., the mouth area was obscured). The results showed that the peri-oral timing cues facilitated response time for both speech and non-speech stimuli (compared to the static face condition). An additional facilitatory effect was found for the full-face versions (compared to the peri-oral timing cue condition) but this effect only occurred for the speech stimuli. The different roles these cues play in speech processing are discussed

Discrimination of foreign language speech contrasts by English monolinguals and French/English bilinguals

The primary aim of this study was to determine whether late French/English bilinguals are able to utilize knowledge of bilabial stop contrasts that exist in each of their separate languages to discriminate bilabial stop contrasts from a new language (Thai). Secondary aims were to determine associations between bilabial stop consonant production in the L1 and the L2, between language learning factors and production and discrimination, and to compare English bilinguals' and monolinguals' discrimination. Three Thai bilabial stop consonant pairs differentiated by Voice Onset Time (VOT) (combinations of [b], [p], and [ph]) were presented to 28 French-English bilinguals, 25 English-French bilinguals, and 43 English monolinguals in an AX discrimination task. It was hypothesized that L2 experience would facilitate discrimination of contrasts that were phonemic in the L2 but not in the L1 for bilinguals. Only limited support for this hypothesis was found. However, results indicate that high production proficiency bilinguals had higher discrimination of the phonemic L2 contrasts (non-phonemic in L1). Discrimination patterns indicate lasting L1 influence, with similarity between unknown foreign language contrasts and L1 contrasts influencing discrimination rates. Production results show evidence for L2 influence in the L1. Results are discussed in the context of current speech perception models