Segmentation of speech

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Categorical perception

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Nasometric values for european portuguese: preliminary results

Nasal sounds frequencies in European Portuguese represent 21% of Português Fundamental corpus sounds (Nascimento et al. 1987), revealing how nasality plays an important role in this language and how a speech problem affecting nasality can interfere severely in one’s speech intelligibility. In order to obtain the first standard nasometric values for European Portuguese we developed two tests (syllable repetition and text reading) and collected data from 25 adults. Preliminary results showed that: oral stimuli achieved an average nasalance score of 10%; syllables with nasal consonant and nasal vowel achieved 77% and the reading passages with nasal saturation presented an average score of 44%. Considering these results, we acknowledge the existence of three different levels of normal nasality

UPTAKE ICT – MOOC on digital employabilty

Uptake_ICT2life-cycle: digital literacy and inclusion to learners with disadvantaged background" is an Erasmus+ project that aims at enhancing digital literacy among adults with disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the project’s outputs is a MOOC on Digital Employability. This paper presents and reflects upon this product, analysing data collected from the students that followed the course as pilot-group. The experience has proved very positive since students recognized the technical quality of the MOOC, as well as the interest, relevance and utility of its contents. A bridge between academia and the work market was established and the students’ awareness of several career opportunities was raised. These various aspects seem to recommend the replication of this MOOC as well as the making of similar ones. The adopted methodology that the trainers involved in this action decided to use aimed at reaching two major target groups: higher education students and other participants that were enrolled in parallel training sessions. Trainees from the Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Santarem had two sorts of profile, according to their study area, more specifically, communication and multimedia or plastic arts and multimedia. So, the idea underlying the chosen strategy was to diversify the target population of the MOOC, and to establish a bridge between participants who had more competencies in the field of ICTs (the multimedia class), and those who has lesser skills in this field (the art class). This diversity implied that the achieved results and metrics, both analytical data and statistic results concerning the used platform and the course’s content, included answers given by students with different learning profiles. The MOOC focused on the importance of ICT for employability. It presented information and suggestions on three main areas, Employability, Freelancing and Entrepreneurship. Each module of the course had several lessons since the educational contents were structured into specific sections, each one addressing a key subject and providing sets of examples that helped students to better understand the focused issues. The MOOC also includes video presentations with real life examples of successful entrepreneurs and freelancers, telling about their experiences and giving advice on how to thrive in the current job market. This is an innovative aspect that means both an approach between business and education, as well as to bring students closer to the objective requirements of working life outside schools.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comunicar : tatuagem de afectos

Livro de homenagem à professora Maria Emília Ricardo Marque

Leitura em voz alta, movimentos oculares e prosódia: integração de informação sintática e discursiva

Este estudo tem como objetivo relacionar dados de movimentos oculares e leitura em voz alta das propriedades sintáticas e discursivas de textos, a fim de compreender os processos cognitivos durante a leitura para a compreensão. Supondo que na leitura em voz alta há uma estreita interação entre a estrutura da sintaxe e a prosódia de fala, recolhemos dados de eyetracking e produção de fala de 17 oradores femininos do PE durante a leitura de dois textos. Os movimentos oculares e a leitura de fala produzidos simultaneamente foram analisados e os nossos resultados mostram que os olhos e a voz respondem tanto à complexidade do texto quanto aos loci seletivos sintáticos e discursivos, como pontos-chave da integração da informação.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reading aloud: eye movements and prosody

This study aims to connect data from ocular movements and reading aloud speech to syntactic and discursive properties of texts, in order to understand integrative cognitive processes during reading for understanding and to identify prosodic and eye movements’ indicators of reading fluency. Assuming that in reading aloud there is a close interaction between syntax structure and speech prosody, we collected eye movements and reading speech data from 17 native EP speakers. Eye movements and reading speech produced simultaneously were analyzed and our results show that eyes and voice are both responsive to text complexity and to syntactic and discursive critical loci, as key points of information integration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Searching for behavioral correlates of text complexity in reading

Research on reading attempts to encompass the connection between linguistic proprieties of the reading materials and the cognitive processes for written language processing. Following studies on reading comprehension and fluency using either silent or oral reading, we are now deepening the relation between behavioral outputs – eye movements and prosody - collected in a reading aloud task. We conducted an experiment where 17 adult native speakers of European Portuguese were instructed to read aloud two texts. We put the hypothesis that there will be a strong connection between text complexity, integrative processes and eyes and vocal behavior. To verify the effect of reading complexity, we prepared two passages representing two poles in a scale of complexity. The texts differ in theme and vocabulary, concerning topic familiarity and word frequency, being alike in syntactic and informational structures. Eye movements were registered with an SMI IVIEW X™ HI-SPEED system, and reading speech was recorded with a Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000. First fixation, first pass and total reading time (for eye movement’s analysis), and vowel stressed duration (VSD) and F0 (for prosody analysis) were taken from two critical loci: words in a syntactic boundary (right edge of the clause) and informational boundary (before a period). Results show significant wrap-up effects in information boundaries either in an increase of first pass and total reading times, as in VSD in the most complex text. We observed eye-voice span effects triggered by words of low frequency, longer size or more complex phonological structure in both texts.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

Prosodic and visual indicators for linguistic processing in reading aloud

In this study, we hypothesize that eye movements tracking simultaneous with reading aloud can reinforce evidences of behaviors markers of linguistic processing. In fact, reading aloud speech can reveal prosodic indicators of structure building, working as a window to access cognitive processes of information integration. Data from an experiment on reading aloud by 17 adult native speakers of European Portuguese was collected and analyzed. A passage with a technical issue was prepared at both lexical and syntactic levels. Eye movements were registered with an SMI IVIEW X HI-SPEED system, and speech recorded with a Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000. Critical areas for analysis were delimited considering intonational and structural properties. First fixation, first pass and total fixation time, for eye movement's analysis, and stressed vowel duration and F0, for prosodic analysis, were taken from the target word at the right edge of syntactic and prosodic selected unities. Results show that higher prosodic and syntactic boundaries - intonational phrases (IP) and complement phrases (CP) are marked by correlated behaviors from voice and eyes: F0 and total fixation time of target word. We can take these two variables as indicators of end-structure building of unities of high level and possibly of wrap-up effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

Leitura em voz alta, movimentos oculares e prosódia: integração de informação sintática e discursiva

This study aims to connect data from ocular movements and reading aloud to the syntactic and discursive properties of texts, in order to understand integrative cognitive processes during reading for understanding. Assuming that in reading aloud there is a close interaction between syntax structure and speech prosody, we collected eyetracking and speech production data from 17 female EP speakers during the reading of two texts. Eye movements and reading speech produced simultaneously were analyzed and our results show that the eyes and the voice are both responsive to text complexity and to syntactic and discursive selected loci, as key points of information integration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio