Les émotions : une étude articulatoire, acoustique et perceptive

Les théories psychologiques modernes considèrent les émotions comme des épisodes relativement brefs en réaction à l'évaluation d'un événement interne ou externe considéré comme important pour l'organisme. Les émotions impliquent, en plus de l'impression subjective ressentie par le sujet, des changements physiologiques et l'expression motrice. L'encodage vocal des émotions est complexe puisque des informations linguistiques sont communiquées simultanément aux informations émotives. Jusqu'à maintenant, peu de travaux se sont intéressés au volet articulatoire du phénomène. Néanmoins, ces quelques études suffisent à convaincre de la forte influence des émotions sur l'articulation de la parole. Toutefois, les études concluent tantôt à une influence globale des émotions sur l'articulation et tantôt à une influence locale, variable selon le substrat phonémique. L'examen détaillé des études articulatoires effectuées à ce jour nous amène plutôt à proposer que les deux systèmes agissent de façon coordonnée : les émotions influencent principalement les articulateurs étant peu ou pas recrutés pour la production d'un phonème. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, en plus de détailler les caractéristiques articulatoires et acoustiques associées à six émotions (colère froide, dégoût, joie euphorique, peur panique, surprise et tristesse mélancolique), nous vérifions cette hypothèse. Pour ce faire, nous avons enregistré, à l'aide d'un articulographe AG500 et d'un micro-casque, dix acteurs professionnels ayant le français québécois comme langue maternelle alors qu'ils prononçaient une phrase standardisée placée dans différents scénarios propres à susciter les émotions ciblées et le neutre. Afin d'évaluer la qualité des émotions produites, les stimuli ont été soumis à un test d'identification auprès de locuteurs natifs du français québécois. Des analyses statistiques nous ont permis de déterminer qu'effectivement les articulateurs sont davantage influencés par les émotions quand ils ne sont pas recrutés pour la production de phonèmes. Nos résultats indiquent donc que les émotions influencent la position de base des articulateurs plutôt que le degré de tension des différents muscles. De plus, nous avons observé qu'il y a invariance sur le plan articulatoire, mais non sur le plan acoustique. \ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Phonétique articulatoire, phonétique acoustique, émotions, prosodie

La catégorisation grammaticale automatique : adaptation du catégoriseur de Brill au français et modification de l'approche

Tableau d’honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2004-2005La catégorisation grammaticale automatique est un domaine où il reste encore beaucoup à faire. De très bons catégoriseurs existent pour l'anglais, mais ceux dont dispose la communauté francophone sont beaucoup moins efficaces. Nous avons donc entraîné le catégoriseur de Brill pour le français pour ensuite en améliorer les résultats. Par ailleurs, quelle que soit la technique utilisée, certains problèmes restent irrésolus. Les mots inconnus sont toujours difficiles à catégoriser correctement. Nous avons tenté de trouver des solutions à ce problème. En somme, nous avons apporté une série de modifications à l'approche de Brill et évalué l'impact de celles-ci sur les performances. Les modifications apportées ont permis de faire passer les performances du traitement des mots inconnus français de 70,7% à 78,6%. Nous avons donc amélioré sensiblement les performances bien qu'il reste encore beaucoup de travail à faire avant que le traitement des mots inconnus français soit satisfaisant

The moderating effect of frequent singing on voice aging

The effects of aging on voice production are well documented, including changes in loudness, pitch and voice quality. However, one important and clinically relevant question that remains concerns the possibility that the aging of voice can be prevented or at least delayed through non-invasive methods. Indeed, discovering natural means to preserve the integrity of the human voice throughout aging could have a major impact on the quality of life of elderly adults. The objective of this study was therefore to examine the potentially positive effect of singing on voice production. To this aim, a group of 72 healthy non-smoking adults (20-93 years-old) was recruited and separated into three groups based on their singing habits. Several voice parameters were assessed (f0 mean, f0 SD, f0 minimum and f0 maximum, mean amplitude and amplitude SD, jitter, shimmer, and harmonic to noise ratio) during the sustained production of vowel /a/. Other parameters were assessed during standardized reading passage (speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), SFF SD). As was expected, age effects were found on most acoustic parameters with significant sex differences. Importantly, moderation analyses revealed that frequent singing moderates the effect of aging on most acoustics parameters. Specifically, in frequent singers, there was no decrease in the stability of pitch and amplitude with age, suggesting that the voice of frequent singers remains more stable in aging than the voice of non-singers, and more generally, providing empirical evidence for a positive effect of singing on voice in aging

Effects of age on the amplitude, frequency and perceived quality of voice

The manner and extent to which voice amplitude and frequency control mechanisms change with age is not well understood. The related question of whether the assessment of one’s own voice evolves with age, concomitant with the acoustical changes that the voice undergoes, also remains unanswered. In the present study, we characterized the aging of voice production mechanisms (amplitude, frequency), compared the aging voice in different experimental contexts (vowel utterance, connected speech) and examined the relationship between voice self-assessment and age-related voice acoustical changes. Eighty healthy adults (20 to 75 years old) participated in the study, which involved computation of several acoustical measures of voice (including measures of fundamental frequency, voice amplitude, and stability) as well as self-assessments of voice. Because depression is frequent in older adults, depression and anxiety scores were also measured. As was expected, analyses revealed age effects on most acoustical measures. However, there was no interaction between age and the ability to produce high/low voice amplitude/frequency, suggesting that voice amplitude and frequency control mechanisms are preserved in aging. Multiple mediation analyses demonstrated that the relationship between age and voice self-assessment was moderated by depression and anxiety scores. Taken together, these results reveal that while voice production undergoes important changes throughout aging, the ability to increase/decrease the amplitude and frequency of voice are preserved, at least within the age range studied, and that depression and anxiety scores have a stronger impact on perceived voice quality than acoustical changes themselves

Aging of speech production, from articulatory accuracy to motor timing

Despite the huge importance of spoken language production in everyday life, little is known about the manner and extent to which the motor aspects of speech production evolve with advancing age as well as the nature of the underlying senescence mechanisms. In this crosssectional group study, we examined the relationship between age and speech production performance using a non-lexical speech production task in which spoken syllable frequency and phonological complexity were systematically varied to test hypotheses about underlying mechanisms. A non-probabilistic sample of 60 cognitively healthy adults (18 - 83 years) produced meaningless nonwords aloud as quickly and accurately as possible. Error rate, vocal reaction time, vocal reaction time variability, vocal response duration and vocal response duration variability were used as dependent variables to characterize speech production performance. The results showed an overall increase in error rate, which occurred mainly in the final syllable position (coda). There was also an increase in vocal response duration and induration variability with age, which was moderated by phonological complexity and syllable frequency. Finally, we also found an age-related change in the relationship between vocal reaction time and vocal response duration. Together, these findings were interpreted as reflecting an age-related decline in the planning and execution of speech movements in cognitively healthy adults

Compensation strategies for a lip-tube perturbation of French [u]: an acoustic and perceptual study of 4-year-old children

Suggested running head: Compensation for a lip-tube perturbationCompensation for a lip-tube perturbation 2 The relations between production and perception in 4-year-old children were examined in a study of compensation strategies for a lip-tube perturbation. Acoustic and perceptual analyses of the rounded vowel [u] produced by twelve 4-year-old French speakers were conducted under two conditions: normal and with a 15-mm-diameter tube inserted between the lips. Recordings of isolated vowels were made in the normal condition before any perturbation (N1), immediately upon insertion of the tube and for the next 19 trials in this perturbed condition, with (P2) or without articulatory instructions (P1), and in the normal condition after the perturbed trials (N2). hal-00333668, version 1- 23 Oct 2008 The results of the acoustic analyses reveal speaker-dependent alterations of F1, F2, and/or F0 in the perturbed conditions and after the removal of the tube. For some subjects, the presence of the tube resulted in very little change; for others, an increase in F2 was observed in P1, which was generally reduced in some of the 20 repetitions, but not systematically and not continuously. The use of articulatory instructions provided in the P2 condition was detrimental to the achievemen