bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An auditory model for intelligibility and quality predictions
Authors: Kates James
Published: May 2013

The perceptual effects of audio processing in devices such as hearing aids can be predicted by comparing auditory model outputs for the processed signal to the model outputs for a clean reference signal. This paper presents an improved auditory model that can be used for both intelligibility and quality predictions. The model starts with a middle-ear filter, followed by a gammatone auditory filter bank. Two-tone suppression is provided by setting the bandwidth of the control filters wider than that of the associated analysis filters. The analysis filter bandwidths are increased in response to increasing signal intensity, and compensation is provided for the variation in group delay across the auditory filter bank. Temporal alignment is also built into the model to facilitate the comparison of the unprocessed reference with the hearing-aid processed signals. The amplitude of the analysis filter outputs is modified by outer hair-cell dynamic-range compression and inner-hair cell firing-rate adaptation. Hearing loss is incorporated into the model as a shift in auditory threshold, an increase in the analysis filter bandwidths, and a reduction in the dynamic-range compression ratio. The model outputs include both the signal envelope and scaled basilar-membrane vibration in each auditory filter band.
Dissipative effects in the response of an elastic medium to a localized force
Authors: Photiadis Douglas
Published: May 2013

The effect of dissipation on the real part of the admittance of an elastic half-space is typically thought to be unimportant if the loss factor of the elastic medium is small. However, dissipation induces losses in the near field of the source and, provided the size of the source is small enough, this phenomenon can be more important than elastic wave radiation. Such losses give rise to a fundamental limit in the quality factor of an oscillator attached to a substrate. Near field losses associated with strains in the elastic substrate can actually be larger than intrinsic losses in the oscillator itself if the internal friction of the substrate is larger than the internal friction of the oscillator. [Research sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.]
Impact of mass ratio and bandwidth on apparent damping of a harmonic oscillator with subordinate oscillator array
Authors: Glean Aldo A. , Vignola Joseph F. , Judge John A. , Ryan Teresa J.
Published: May 2013

The response of a lightly damped resonator with a set of substantially less massive attached oscillators has been studied. The collection of attached oscillators is known as a subordinate oscillator array (SOA). An SOA can function as an energy sink, extracting vibration energy from the primary mass and thus adding apparent damping to the system. We have shown that the limit of apparent damping achievable for this class of system is the inverse of non-dimensional bandwidth (ratio of the bandwidth to the fundamental frequency of the primary oscillator). In practice, the utility of this result is limited because a great deal of mass (~25% of primary) is required to approach critical damping. The mass of the subordinate set required to achieve the most rapid energy transfer from the primary is proportional to the non-dimensional bandwidth squared. Low apparent Q is achieved by increasing non-dimensional bandwidth. The presentation will describe numerical optimizations that investigate the impact of the SOA bandwidth, the mass ratio (the ratio of the total mass of the SOA to the mass of the primary structure) and the apparent damping of the system.
Dynamic analysis of annular sector plate with general boundary supports
Authors: Shi Dongyan , Shi Xianjie , Li Wen L. , Wang Qingshan
Published: May 2013

Dynamic behavior of annular sector plate is an important research topic since they have been extensively used in practical engineering applications. However, the dynamic analysis of annular sector plates with general boundary supports is rarely studied in literature. In this investigation, an analytical method is presented for the vibration analysis of annular sector plates with general elastic boundary supports. Unlike most existing framework, arbitrary elastic boundary supports can be easily realized by setting the stiffness of the two types restraining springs. The displacement field is universally expressed as a new form of trigonometric series expansions with a drastically improved convergence as compared with the conventional Fourier series. Mathematically, such a double Furies series is capable of representing any function (including the exact displacement solution) whose third-order partial derivatives are continuous over the area of the plate. Thus, the double Fourier series solution to the dynamic analysis of the structure is obtained by employing the Raleigh-Ritz method. The accuracy and reliability of the current method are validated by both FEA and reference results under various boundary conditions. The present method can be directly applied to other more complicated boundary conditions and other shape plates.
Structural element vibration analysis
Authors: Falek Kamel , Chalah-Rezgui Lila , Chalah Farid , Bali Abderrahim , Nechnech Amar
Published: May 2013

Various approaches are usually used in the dynamic analysis of beams vibrating transversally. For this, numerical methods allowing the solving of the general eigenvalue problem are utilized. The equilibrium equations, describing the movement, result from the solution of a fourth order differential equation. Our investigation is based on the finite element method. The findings of these investigations are the vibration frequencies, obtained by the Jacobi method. Two types of elementary mass matrix are considered, representing a uniform distribution of the mass along the element and concentrated ones located at fixed points whose number is increased progressively separated by equal distances at each evaluation stage. The studied beams have different boundary constraints representing several classical situations. Comparisons are made for beams where the distributed mass is replaced by n concentrated masses. As expected, the first calculus stage is to obtain the lowest number of the beam parts that gives a frequency comparable to that issued from the Rayleigh formula. The obtained values are then compared to theoretical results based on the assumptions of the Bernoulli-Euler theory. These steps are used after for the second type mass representation in the same manner.
Study on error of vibration intensity measurement in a flat plate with multiple energy flows entering from outside
Authors: Hibinaga Mototaka , Mikami Masato
Published: May 2013

Vibration Intensity (VI) method can show flows of vibration energy in surface of mechanical structures as a vector quantity and is one of the techniques to identify vibration source and vibration transmission path. Some previous studies have showed that if there are multiple vibration sources in the analyzed plate, VI causes error due to superposition of multiple waves. In actual structures, however, the vibration source often exists outside of the analyzed plate which is surrounded by the boundary with reflection, such as curved parts and staged parts. The VI error has not been investigated in such cases close to actual structures. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of superposition of multiple waves which come across the stepped boundary into a flat plate on VI by using finite element method analysis. This model also simulates the case with the superposition of progressive wave entering from the outside of the plate and reflected wave caused at a boundary of the plate. The results of calculation showed that the superposition of waves causes a difference between VI and real vibration energy flow, depending on frequency and plate size.
Mid-frequency vibrations of a double-leaf plate with random inhomogeneities
Authors: Chung Hyuck
Published: May 2013

Predicting vibrations of composite structures such as double-leaf plates is difficult because of the large number of components and random inhomogeneities in the components. In the low and high frequency ranges, the components may be homogenized, and consequently the model of a structure becomes simple enough to be mathematically and computationally tractable. However the vibrations in the mid-frequency range cannot be predicted using such methods because the wavelengths are comparable to the size of the components and junctions between components. Simply adding more details, e.g., higher resolution in finite element mesh, will not result in more accurate predictions. In this paper a double-leaf plate is modeled using the Kirchhoff plate and Euler beam theories. The elastic moduli and junctions are allowed to be inhomogeneous over the plates and beams. These inhomogeneities are simulated as continuous smooth random functions rather than series of discrete random numbers. The random functions are incorporated into the model using the variational formulation and the Fourier expansion of the vibration field. Various probability density functions are tested for the inhomogeneities. Then the distribution of resonant frequencies and the vibration field are studied and compared with other models.
Cortical mechanisms of integrating auditory feedback with vocal pitch control
Authors: Zarate Jean Mary
Published: May 2013

Precise vocal pitch regulation is crucial for both speech and song. The pitch of a speaker’s voice can indicate the intent of a sentence, set the emotional context of a conversation, or distinguish meanings in tonal languages. In singing, accurate vocal pitch is the single most important element needed to properly produce notes and melodies. Vocal pitch regulation requires the integration of auditory feedback processing with the vocal motor system, also known as audio-vocal integration; however, the neural substrates governing this integration have been elusive. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of singing with pitch-shifted feedback are presented here to outline the neural mechanisms of audio-vocal integration for voluntary vocal pitch regulation, and to discuss the effects of long-term vocal training on vocal performance and neural activity during vocal pitch regulation.
Cortical plasticity in the sensorimotor control of voice induced by auditory cognitive training
Authors: Liu Hanjun , Li Weifeng , Chen Zhaocong
Published: May 2013

Multiple lines of evidence have shown that motor-related brain regions can be activated during passively musical listening or beat perception, indicating a connection between auditory and sensorimotor systems. In the present study, we sought to examine whether the neural processing of auditory-vocal integration can be shaped by short-term cognitive training related to auditory attention and working memory. Auditory cognitive training consisted of a ten-day backward digit span task, in which digits embedded in various noise at different SNR levels were presented and subjects were required to repeat the digits in the reverse order. Before and after the cognitive training, subjects also participated in a vocal motor task, in which they heard their pitch auditory feedback unexpectedly altered upwards (50 and 200 cents) during sustained vocalization and their neurophysiological responses were recorded. The results revealed a significantly improved performance on the backward digit span task after the training. Moreover, cortical responses indexed by P2 amplitude to pitch perturbations in voice auditory feedback were significantly increased after the training compared with those before the training. These findings provide evidence that plastic cortical changes in the sensorimotor control of voice can be caused by auditory cognitive training.
Variability attenuates sensitivity to acoustic detail in cross-language speech production
Authors: Martin Sean , Davidson Lisa , Wilson Colin
Published: May 2013

In the production of non-native consonant clusters, speakers’ systematic errors have been attributed to the influence of native-language phonotactics [Dupoux et al. (1999)]. However, recent models of non-native speech production suggest that speakers are also sensitive to acoustic details [Wilson et al. (2012)]. We examine whether speakers’ sensitivity to phonetic detail is modulated by variability in the speech signal, and whether they abstract away from subphonemic detail given sufficient variability. This was tested by presenting English speakers with ill-formed clusters (e.g., bdafa, tmape, zgade) containing systematically manipulated sub-phonemic acoustic properties: stop burst duration and amplitude for stop-initial clusters, and the presence/absence of pre-obstruent voicing (POV) for voiced clusters. In experiment 1, which presented stimuli produced by a single Russian talker, significant effects were found for the duration manipulations on the rates of epenthesis, the amplitude manipulation on consonant change/deletion errors, and the POV manipulation on the rate of prothesis. In experiment 2, which contained stimuli produced by three talkers, there was a substantial attenuation of the influence of the acoustic manipulations on speakers’ productions. These results suggest that an account of non-native speech production that models the relative contribution of phonotactics and phonetic detail must incorporate information about variability in the environment.
Categorization of regional, international, and nonnative accents
Authors: Akbik Amal , Atagi Eriko , Bent Tessa
Published: May 2013

Auditory free classification—a task in which listeners classify auditory samples into unconstrained groups—has provided insight into perceptual representation and categorization for several sources of speech variability including U.S. regional dialects, nonnative accents, and foreign languages. Within these studies, phonological markedness and geography have emerged as central organizing principles. However, previous studies were limited by including only one source of variability. To address this gap, the perception of U.S. regional dialects, international English dialects, and nonnative accents was investigated within one classification task. Listeners categorized talkers based on perceived location of origin. Cluster analysis demonstrated a perceptual divide between native and nonnative talkers. Native talkers were further delimited by geographic proximity into Southern Hemisphere, U.S., and United Kingdom groups. One exception was the consistent grouping of Southern U.S. talkers with talkers from England. Nonnative talkers were grouped into three major branches: French and German, Asian, and other. The “other” branch primarily consisted of less familiar accents. The results suggest that native and nonnative accents are perceived as separate categories regardless of accent markedness. Additionally, when listeners are presented with a wide range of dialects and accents, geography remains an important organizing principle. [Research supported by IU Hutton Honors College.]
French listeners’ perceptions of prominence and phrasing are differentially affected by instruction set
Authors: Smith Caroline
Published: May 2013

Listeners’ perception of prosodic structure may differ depending on whether they are instructed to attend to the meaning of a spoken passage, or to the acoustics. Real-time perceptions of prominence and phrasal boundaries were obtained from Rapid Prosody Transcription [Cole et al. (2010)]. Twenty naive French listeners were divided into two groups that were given either meaning- or acoustically based instructions for listening to passages of spontaneous speech. While listening, they read an orthographic unpunctuated transcript of the speech. Half of each group first labeled words they perceived as prominent in five passages, then phrasal boundaries in five different passages; the other half performed the tasks in the opposite order. Consistent with previous results, listener agreement (measured by kappa) was higher for labeling boundaries than for prominence. The mean kappa was 0.80 for both meaning- and acoustically based responses, but the difference between prominence and boundaries was greater in meaning-based responses. Listeners labeled more words as prominent than they labeled boundaries, with a greater difference in meaning-based responses than acoustically based, although the frequency of labeling did not differ overall between acoustic- and meaning-based instructions. The divergence between prominence and boundary labeling challenges the assumption that prominence in French derives from pre-boundary position.
The influence of production latencies and phonological neighborhood density on vowel dispersion
Authors: Munson Benjamin
Published: May 2013

A number of studies have shown that in read laboratory speech talkers produce vowels in words from dense phonological neighborhoods closer to the periphery of the F1/F2 space than vowels in words from sparse neighborhoods [e.g., Wright (2004)]. The reason for this pattern is hotly debated: some argue that it reflects listener-directed partial compensation for the negative effect of high neighborhood density on perception [Munson and Solomon (2004)]. Others argue that this effect is due to the coactivation of similar words during speech production [Baese-Berk and Goldrick (2009)]. If the patterns are due to the coactivation of phonologically similar words in production, then the degree of hyperarticulation should be related to another measure presumably related to the coactivation of words, production latencies. Specifically, hyperarticulation should be greatest when the production latencies are shortest, as coactivation would presumably speed production [Vitevitch (2002)]. Production latencies and vowel dispersion were measured in read productions of single words varying in phonological neighborhood density. A preliminary analysis of data from 11 adults partially supports Baese-Berk and Goldrick’s hypothesis: vowel-space dispersion was better predicted by production latencies than by neighborhood density, albeit in the opposite-than-predicted direction. Analysis of a larger cohort of talkers is ongoing.
An examination of the articulatory characteristics of prominence in function and content words using real-time magnetic resonance imaging
Authors: Yang Zhaojun , Ramanarayanan Vikram , Byrd Dany , Narayanan Shri
Published: May 2013

We examine the functional coupling between articulatory characteristics of prominence, such as articulator speed, and its acoustic characteristics, such as F0 and acoustic energy, for content words (nouns) and function words (e.g., articles, prepositions and conjunctions) using real-time magnetic resonance imaging data. We use Granger causality ideas to test the degree and direction of causal influence between the chosen articulatory and acoustic measures for function and content words. We further apply functional canonical correlation analysis to these measures to understand the covariant behavioral modes of the articulatory and acoustic measures. After controlling for word duration, we observe that articulatory speed generally has a significant causal influence on F0, especially for longer content words, but observe no such effect in the opposite direction. Notably, we do not observe this effect for function words in most cases. We further observe a tighter coupling of canonical weight functions of articulatory speed and acoustic-prominence characteristics (F0 and energy) for the content words as compared to the function words considered. These observations provide support for the hypothesis that prominence realized during content words may result from a close coupling between articulatory and acoustic characteristics such as articulatory speed and F0, with suggestions of a directional causal relationship. [Work supported by NIH.]
The perception of formant-frequency range is affected by veridical and judged fundamental frequency
Authors: Barreda Santiago , Nearey Terrance M.
Published: May 2013

The vowels produced by different speakers vary in terms of their fundamental frequency (f0) and formant frequencies (FFs). Variation in the production of a given vowel category between speakers of different sizes is primarily according to a single multiplicative parameter (related to speaker vocal-tract length). This parameter, which we refer to as FF-scaling, has an associated perceptual quality that listeners may use to determine apparent speaker characteristics and vowel quality. In a previous experiment [Barreda and Nearey, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 129, 2661 (2011)], listeners were trained to identify a limited set of voices based on FF-scaling and f0 differences. The current study presented listeners with large number of voices (n = 4000) varying in FF-scaling and f0, arranged in a two-dimensional space where one dimension corresponded to each acoustic characteristic. Listeners were played a voice, and asked to indicate its location on the board, thereby providing an f0 and FF-scaling estimate for the voice. Results indicate that listeners are able to identify voice FF-scaling, and that this decision is informed primarily by veridical voice FF-scaling. However, there is a complicated relationship between perceived f0 and FF-scaling, suggesting an interdependent relationship in the perception of these characteristics.
Relationship between the durations of rhythm unit with primary and secondary stresses in English speech
Authors: Nakamura Shizuka
Published: May 2013

In this author’s previous study [Nakamura, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 131(4, Pt. 2), 3347 (2012)] on the acoustical analysis of the duration structure of rhythm in English speech observed in short sentences uttered by native speakers, the durations of the following rhythm unit showed the smallest variance among native speakers: 1/4 of the preceding unstressed syllable(s) + stressed syllable + 3/4 of the succeeding unstressed syllable(s). The durations of the rhythm unit with a secondary stress were concentrated at half of those of the unit with a primary stress. Therefore, the rhythm can be described by a series of rhythm units with primary and secondary stresses where the latter unit is half the duration of the former. In this study, the relationship between the rhythm units with primary and secondary stresses was investigated from viewpoints of the position of syllables with primary and secondary stresses in a sentence, correlation among rhythm units in a sentence, and individual differences among native speakers. The results show that rhythm units in a sentence that are not only adjacent but also remote can adjust their durations mutually to realize the two to one ratio of the duration of the rhythm unit with primary and secondary stresses.
The effect of interpretation bias on the production of disambiguating prosody
Authors: Choe Wook Kyung , Redford Melissa A.
Published: May 2013

Syntactically ambiguous sentences are frequently strongly biased toward one meaning over another [see, e.g., Tanenhaus and Trueswell (1995)]. This interpretation bias influences listeners’ use of disambiguating prosody [Wales and Toner (1979)]. The current study investigated the effect on production. In experiment 1, the default interpretation of a heterogeneous set of 18 syntactically ambiguous sentences was investigated in 40 participants, who completed a question-and-answer task designed to identify intended meaning without making participants aware of potential ambiguity. Results were that 90% of the participants interpreted 11 of the sentences in just one way. There was a weaker interpretation bias for the remaining 7 sentences. In experiment 2, ten speakers were provided with and taught the alternate meanings of the 18 sentences from experiment 1, and then asked to disambiguate the meanings using prosody. Temporal and F0 measures indicated that while all speakers differentiated between meanings in production, only sentences with weak interpretation biases were consistently prosodically disambiguated. Prosodic cues to structure were applied inconsistently to differentiate meaning in sentences with strong interpretation biases. We conclude that disambiguating prosody is grammaticalized only when required by the interpretative norms of the speech community.
Mechanisms for remembering roots versus affixes in complex words
Authors: Pycha Anne
Published: May 2013

Previous research has demonstrated that listeners remember low-frequency words (fob) through explicit recollection, but high-frequency words (money) through implicit familiarity [Joordens and Hockley (2000)]. We hypothesize that a similar asymmetry in remembering occurs in morphologically complex words (bleakish), where root frequency (bleak) is always low relative to affix frequency (ish). In our experiment, which modifies a technique developed by Goldinger et al. (1999), participants hear both complex and simple words at study. At test, they hear old words in which a portion of the stimulus is masked with soft or loud background noise. For complex words, the masked portion is either the root or the affix (bleakish, bleakish); for simple words, it is the corresponding pseudo-morpheme (relish, relish). Participants indicate whether they heard the word previously by making an old/new judgment, followed by a remember/know judgment [Tulving (1985)]. Preliminary results indicate that listeners are more likely to make “old” judgments when morphemes occur in soft (versus loud) background noise, but that this illusion effect is stronger for roots than affixes. Thus, clarity of perceptual input influences the memory of a complex word, but in an asymmetric fashion, suggesting that listeners remember roots and affixes via different mechanisms.
Lexical bias and prosodic cues: An eye-tracking study of compound/phrase disambiguation
Authors: Gamache Jessica L.
Published: May 2013

Despite compounds and phrases exhibiting distinct prosodic cues (e.g., pitch and duration), adults fail to use these cues in certain contexts. In two eye-tracking experiments, I examined English speakers’ attention to prosody in adjective-noun string disambiguation to explore a lexical bias previously reported (e.g., “hot dog” is interpreted as the food, regardless of prosody.) In experiment 1, 24 participants were presented with pictures of the compound and phrasal representations for possible compounds (20 known, 10 novel) accompanied by an audio presentation of either a phrasal or compound production. Replicating previous findings, participants sometimes ignored prosody and exhibited biases towards compound pictures for common compounds and towards phrasal pictures for novel compounds. The fixation data reveals similar patterns in which participants appeared to not consider the alternative picture, even when it matched available prosodic cues. In experiment 2, the phrasal/compound pictures were decoupled and placed with unrelated distractors and participants were asked whether either picture matched the audio presentation of a phrasal or compound production. This experiment helps to determine whether the exhibited lexical bias is an artifact of experimental designs using minimal pairs or whether prosody is still ignored when frequency and novelty are not directly competing.
Neural processing of voices—Familiarity
Authors: Gustavsson Lisa , Kallioinen Petter , Klintfors Eeva , Lindh Jonas
Published: May 2013

Brain responses to familiar and unfamiliar voices were investigated with ERPs (Event Related Potentials). Presentation of a stream of one syllable utterances from a female voice established a standard expectation, and similar samples from four other male voices where inserted as unexpected deviants in a typical mismatch paradigm. The participants were 12 students from the basic course in linguistics. Two of the deviant voices were familiar voices of their teachers. The two other deviant voices were matched (same age, sex, and dialect) but unfamiliar to the participants. A typical MMN (Mismatch Negativity) was elicited, i.e., a more negative response to the deviants compared to the standards. In contrast to verbal reports, where only one participant identified any of the deviant voices, the MMN response differed on group level between familiar and unfamiliar voices. MMN to familiar voices was larger. Using teachers’ voices ensured naturalistic long term exposure, but did not allow for random assignment to conditions of familiarity making the design quasi-experimental. Thus, acoustic analysis of voice characteristics as well as follow up studies with randomized exposure to voices are needed to rule out possible confounds and establish a causal effect of voice familiarity.
Effects of prosodic strengthening and lexical boundary on /s/-stop sequences in English
Authors: Lee Yoonjeong
Published: May 2013

This study examined how the effects of prosodic strengthening (from prosodic boundary and accent) and lexical boundary (e.g., “ice # can” vs. “eye # scan”) are acoustic-phonetically realized on English /s/-stop sequences in a sentence. First, the domain-initial strengthening effect was not strictly confined to the first segment, but could extend into the second consonant and, at least partially, into the following vowel in the #/sCV/ sequence (e.g., in “scan”). Second, the accent-induced strengthening effect was robust in all acoustic measures for the #/sCV/ sequence. Third, prosodic strengthening arising with boundary and accent gave rise to the “shortened” VOT for the voiceless stop in the #/sCV/ sequence, suggesting that prosodic strengthening can operate on the phonetic manifestation of a phonological rule to reinforce the language-specific phonetic feature, which is, in this case, {-spread glottis}. Fourth, domain-initial strengthening and accent-induced strengthening differ substantially in some aspects, suggesting that they may be encoded separately in speech production process. Finally, “ice # can” and “eye # scan” were indeed very differently realized, suggesting that the underlying lexical boundary is signaled by fine-phonetic details even when the sequences occurred phrase-internally where they appeared to be homophonous, at least impressionistically, and syllabified the same.
Syntactic predictability influences duration
Authors: Moore-Cantwell Claire
Published: May 2013

Building on work by Gahl and Garnsey, 2004, this paper demonstrates that speakers “buy time” during the planning of upcoming low-probability syntactic structures by producing prosodic boundaries with longer duration before low-probability than before high-probability structures. Subject extraction cleft sentences (“It was Edward who (t) loved Lucy.”) are more common in corpora than object extraction cleft sentences (“It was Edward who Lucy loved (t).”) [Roland et al. (2007)], and are also easier to process [e.g., Gibson (1998)]. The duration of the clefted constituent (“Edward”) was measured in planned productions of subject- and object-extraction clefts in English. In order to disentangle the probability of each structure from its difficulty level, the probabilities were manipulated within the experiment through training. Participants read aloud: First, two SE and two OE clefts; second, eight SE or eight OE clefts; and finally, another two SE and two OE clefts. Before training, the clefted constituent was longer in OE clefts (mean 407 ms) than in SE clefts (370ms, t = 2.4, p = 0.02). This difference was no longer present after OE training (OE: 385 ms, SE: 397 ms), but was still present after SE training (OE: 448 ms, SE: 388 ms).
Prosodic characteristics of two focus types in emphatic context in Thai
Authors: Silpachai Alif
Published: May 2013

This study presents an acoustic analysis of narrow focus (early focus) and broad focus, each in emphatic context (tune) in Thai, with the goal of providing a basic characterization of their prosody. To investigate prosodic realizations, target words from each of the 5 lexical tones in Thai were placed in subject positions of sentences with SVO structure. Each target word was placed in a sentence in which each syllable contained the same lexical tone as that of the target word. Preliminary results show that F0 measures, especially F0 maximum, minimum, and range, differed between focus types. In particular, narrow focused words were distinguished from non-narrow focused by higher F0 maximum, minimum, and range, while post-focal words contained lower F0 measures. Syllable duration also played a role in signaling narrow focus: focal words in narrow focus sentences were significantly longer than their non-focal counterparts in broad focus sentences. Interestingly, a pitch reset seemed to occur after focused words. Findings from four additional Thai speakers will be presented and there will be a discussion of their relevance to the intonational phonology of Thai.
Prosody and syntactic structures in continuous speech in French
Authors: Massicotte-Laforge Sarah , Melançon Andréane , Shi Rushen
Published: May 2013

Infant-directed speech contains dominantly multi-word utterances. Segmenting speech into linguistic units is crucial for language acquisition. This study inquires if prosodic cues exist in speech and mark syntactic categories. Participants were Quebec-French speakers. In experiment 1 participants read determiner+noun and pronoun+verb utterances. Nouns and verbs were pseudo-words (e.g., mige, crale) counterbalanced in their occurrences in the utterances, and their prosodic properties (duration, pitch, intensity) were measured. Results showed that the two types of utterances did not differ in prosody; noun versus verb productions of these pseudo-words were equivalent prosodically. Experiment 2 tested whether larger utterances were produced with prosodic cues supporting syntactic units. The same pseudo-words were the final words (counterbalanced) in (1) [determiner+adjective+noun] and (2) [[determiner+noun]+verb] structures. Results showed that the last word as nouns versus verbs differed significantly in duration, pitch and intensity. Moreover, the initial consonant of verb productions was longer, with a distinct preceding pause. The word preceding the verb (2) exhibited boundary cues, differing significantly from the word preceding the noun in (1) in duration, pitch, and intensity. We suggest that these acoustic cues may help children first parse larger utterances and then acquire the syntactic properties of phrases and words based on their distribution.
Towards a model of Singaporean English intonational phonology
Authors: Chong Adam J.
Published: May 2013

Singaporean English (SgE) is a variety of English spoken in Singapore. Recent research has sought to identify the systematic features that make SgE distinct from other varieties of English. Although the intonation of SgE has been described previously [Deterding (1994), Lim (2004), Ng (2011)], no phonological model has yet been proposed. This paper proposes a model of intonational phonology for SgE within the Autosegmental-Metrical phonology framework. Three native speakers were recorded reading declarative and question sentences of varying length and stress pattern. Preliminary results suggest that SgE has three prosodic units above the word: the Accentual Phrase (AP), Intermediate Phrase (ip) and Intonational Phrase (IP). An AP is slightly larger than a word and is characterized by a general LH (rising) contour. The L can be attributable to either an L* tone on a lexically-stressed syllable or an L initial boundary tone if the stressed syllable occurs late in the AP. The AP-final syllable always has a phonologically High boundary tone (Ha). The initial AP is realized in a large pitch range, and subsequent APs within the same ip are realized in successively reduced pitch ranges. Tones of larger prosodic units will also be discussed.
Calibrating the detection of spontaneous speech: From sentences to noun phrases
Authors: Parker Sara , Pardo Jennifer
Published: May 2013

Many studies have examined the differences between speech that is produced spontaneously as opposed to read from a prepared script. Most of these studies have focused on prosodic measures taken from clauses, sentences, or connected discourse. Furthermore, studies have shown that listeners are able to identify the context of production when presented with sentence-length utterances. The current study examined whether a listener can identify the context for utterances that are briefer than a sentence. A set of 20 talkers (10 male) produced spontaneous descriptions of maps that they then read aloud in a separate session at least one week later. Pairs of sentences that matched in fluency across both contexts were selected, and listeners judged which member of a pair was produced spontaneously. In separate blocks, listeners heard either full sentences, sentence beginnings, sentence endings, or two-word noun phrases excised from sentences. Overall, listeners could identify the spontaneously produced utterances, but only for excerpts longer than two-word noun phrases. These findings indicate that the information present in two-word noun phrases is not sufficient to support perception of spontaneous versus read speaking style.
Effects of musical experience on perception of audiovisual synchrony for speech and music
Authors: Behne Dawn M. , Alm Magnus , Berg Aleksander , Engell Thomas , Foyn Camilla , Johnsen Canutte , Srigaran Thulasy , Torsdottir Ane Eir
Published: May 2013

Perception of audiovisual synchrony relies on matching temporal attributes across sensory modalities. To investigate the influence of experience on cross-modal temporal integration, the effect of musical experience on the perception of audiovisual synchrony was studied with speech and music stimuli. Nine musicians and nine non-musicians meeting strict group criteria provided simultaneity judgments to audiovisual /ba/ and guitar-strum stimuli, each with 23 levels of audiovisual alignment. Although results for the speech and music stimuli differed, the two groups did not differ in their responses to the two types of stimuli. Consistent with previous research, responses from both groups show less temporal sensitivity to stimuli with video-lead than audio-lead. No significant between-group difference was found for video-lead thresholds. However, both for the speech and music stimuli, musicians had an audio-lead threshold significantly closer to the point of physical synchrony than non-musicians, indicating the musicians' greater acuity for audiovisual temporal coherence. Overall this leads to a non-significant tendency for a narrower window of synchrony for musicians than non-musicians. Findings are consistent with predictions that cross-modal temporal experience increases threshold acuity for audio-lead, but not for video-lead, and also support theories suggesting greater efficiency with relevant experience.
Speech rhythm in Korean: Experiments in speech cycling
Authors: Chung Younah , Arvaniti Amalia
Published: May 2013

Korean has not been unanimously classified for rhythm class, and it lacks stress. Thus, it does not fit into views that rhythm rests on alternations of metrical strength. The goal was to examine what, if any, elements are used in Korean for rhythm purposes. It was hypothesized that the onsets of accentual phrases act as beats. The materials were 6 sentences; each was 9 syllables and three APs long. The number of syllables in each AP varied. Syllable composition also varied between CV and CVC. Native speakers repeated each sentence, fitting each repetition into beat intervals at three different metronome rates. Each AP was expressed as a ratio of the entire cycle. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment suggests that speakers keep AP onsets in phase although syllable count and composition also affect phase. The results support our hypothesis that AP onsets operate similarly to stresses. The second experiment that used waltz rhythm showed that it is the only level of prominence, and no differentiation between the strength of these beats, such that it would produce waltz rhythm, is possible. The results suggest that Korean rhythm is not characterized by multiple levels of alternation between strong and weak constituents.
Acoustic vowel space size and perceived speech tempo
Authors: Weirich Melanie , Simpson Adrian P.
Published: May 2013

“Females speak faster than males.” Although several studies have proved this stereotype to be wrong [Byrd (1994)], it is still a widespread belief in many languages and within both genders. The interesting question is why. Two findings are particularly relevant regarding this stereotype: First, females reveal a greater acoustic vowel space than males [Hillenbrand et al. (1995)]. Second, a stimulus with a moving f0-contour is perceived as faster than the same stimulus with a monotonous contour [Lehiste (1976)]. From that, we might propose that if a dynamic f0 contour triggers the perception of a faster speaking rate, then a larger acoustic vowel space might have the same effect. The reason for female speakers being perceived as speaking at a faster tempo, then, is that they traverse on average a larger acoustic vowel space within the same time-frame than male speakers do. Furthermore, we could also expect a relationship between vowel space size and perceived speech tempo within the same gender. A perception test was conducted with temporally aligned stimuli from 56 female speakers who vary in their vowel space sizes. Results reveal a significant positive correlation between vowel space size and perceived tempo (r = 0.36, p < 0.001).
English native monolingual and simultaneous English/Spanish bilingual listeners’ perception of foreign accented speech: Cross-language effects on accented speech perception
Authors: Moon Somang , Jin Su-Hyun
Published: May 2013

The current study was designed to explore whether English monolingual listeners (ENM) perceive foreign- accented speech differently from English/ Spanish simultaneous bilingual listeners (ESB) who learned both languages simultaneously at early age. Previous studies suggest that listener’s perception of foreign-accented speech is affected by listener’s L1 phonological systems. When exposed to two languages simultaneously, bilinguals might be able to exploit the phonetic categories of the two languages in speech perception [Best (1994), Goetry and Kolinsky (2000)]. It would be possible that simultaneous exposure to multi-languages at the early age helps SB listeners to tolerate foreign accents in speech more resulting in better understanding of accented speech. It would be also possible that if two phonological systems of SB listeners interact each other resulting in poorer understanding of foreign accented speech than ENM listeners. ENM and SB listeners completed two speech perception tasks: accent ratings of an English passage and identification of English vowels spoken by Korean-native speakers. Results might suggest the effect of language exposure on accented speech perception.
Phonetic alignment and phonological association in Tashlhiyt Berber
Authors: Röttger Timo B. , Ridouane Rachid , Grice Martine
Published: May 2013

Although Tashlhiyt Berber uses intonation to mark sentence modality, the location of f0 events is severely constrained by its notorious predominance of consonantal nuclei (cf. (1) where syllable nuclei are underlined) (1) [ts.sk.∫ f.tstt] “you dried it (fem.)” Here we report on the alignment of f0 peaks in disyllabic target words in polar questions and contrastive statements in the language. Data from four native speakers revealed that questions tend to have later f0 peaks than statements. This was reflected in discrete association patterns when more than one tone bearing unit was available: in questions the f0 peak occurred significantly more often on the final syllable than in statements. Interestingly, if no association distinction was made, there was a difference in alignment of this peak within a tone bearing unit: the peak was aligned significantly later in questions. Thus, discrete phonological association patterns were mirrored by phonetic alignment detail. These data question the traditional dichotomy between phonological association and phonetic alignment.
Perception modeling of native and foreign-accented Japanese speech based on prosodic features of pitch accent
Authors: Gonzales Ashleigh R. , Ishihara Shunichi , Tsurutani Chiharu
Published: May 2013

This study investigates the influence acoustic measures of pitch accent have on L1 and Australian English (AusE) L2 Japanese speech perception, expanding Tsurutani (2010) and Ishihara, Tsurutani, and Tsukada (2011), and motivated by Munro and Derwing (2001), which studies the role of speaking rate on judgments of L2 speech. We establish native and advanced AusE listeners of Japanese differ in their judgments of foreign accent in terms of accentedness and comprehensibility [Munro and Derwing (1995, 1999)] through a listening task. Selected acoustic measures of pitch accent from the speech stimuli, which displayed significant variance across listener groups—delta-pitch, max and mean max delta-intensity, and duration per mora—are correlated with L1 and L2 listener data. Testing for a relationship between each of the acoustic measures and listener judgments, the regression analyses show a considerable relationship between comprehensibility judgments and duration and intensity features, ranging from adjusted R2 = 14.3% to 24.6% across listeners, and indicating the degree of variance between judgments can be attributed to these acoustic measures. We can interpret that comprehensibility is linked to intensity and duration, which supports the authors’ prior findings that timing is considered more important than pitch in the detection of foreign-accented speech.
Can co-speech hand gestures facilitate learning of non-native tones?
Authors: Eng Katelyn , Hannah Beverly , Leung Lindsay , Wang Yue
Published: May 2013

Speech perception research has indicated that information from multiple input modalities (e.g., auditory, visual) facilitates second language (L2) speech learning. However, co-speech gestural information has shown mixed results. While L2 learners may benefit from this additional channel of information, it may also be inhibitory as learners may experience excessive cognitive load. This study examines the role of metaphoric hand gestures in L2 lexical tone learning using previously established laboratory training procedures. Training stimuli include Mandarin tones produced by native Mandarin speakers, with concurrent hand gestures mimicking pitch contours in space. Native Canadian English speakers are trained to perceive tones presented in one of three modalities: audio-visual (AV, speaker voice and face), audio-gesture (AG, speaker voice and hand gestures) and audio-visual-gesture (AVG). The effects of training are assessed by comparing the pre-training and post-training tone identification results. Greater improvements for the AVG compared to AV group would indicate the facilitative role of gestures. However, greater improvements for the AG or AV compared to AVG group would support the cognitive overload account. Findings are discussed in terms of how sensory-motor and cognitive domains cooperate functionally in speech perception and learning. [Equal contributions by KE, BH, and YW; work supported by SSHRC.]
The role of prosody in speech segmentation: Comparisons between monolinguals and French-English bilinguals
Authors: Spring Meghan , Polka Linda , Curtin Suzanne
Published: May 2013

Monolinguals harness language-specific prosodic cues for the purpose of segmenting out words from the speech stream. However, if and how bilinguals are able to do so in both their languages is less certain. In the current study, 26 English monolinguals, 28 French monolinguals, and 41 English-French adult bilinguals heard streams of both English- and French- accented nonsense syllables. While there were clear differences between the monolingual English and French groups, there was no difference between the performance of English-dominant and French- dominant bilinguals, nor between simultaneous versus sequential bilinguals. As a group, English-French bilinguals did show evidence of different segmentation strategies between language streams. It is therefore concluded that in certain conditions, bilinguals appear to be able to switch stress-based segmentation strategies between their languages. The use of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) as a promising new method for measuring language dominance in bilinguals is also discussed.