Dataset Information

Speaking to a common tune: Between-speaker convergence in voice fundamental frequency in a joint speech production task.

ABSTRACT: Recent research on speech communication has revealed a tendency for speakers to imitate at least some of the characteristics of their interlocutor's speech sound shape. This phenomenon, referred to as phonetic convergence, entails a moment-to-moment adaptation of the speaker's speech targets to the perceived interlocutor's speech. It is thought to contribute to setting up a conversational common ground between speakers and to facilitate mutual understanding. However, it remains uncertain to what extent phonetic convergence occurs in voice fundamental frequency (F0), in spite of the major role played by pitch, F0's perceptual correlate, as a conveyor of both linguistic information and communicative cues associated with the speaker's social/individual identity and emotional state. In the present work, we investigated to what extent two speakers converge towards each other with respect to variations in F0 in a scripted dialogue. Pairs of speakers jointly performed a speech production task, in which they were asked to alternately read aloud a written story divided into a sequence of short reading turns. We devised an experimental set-up that allowed us to manipulate the speakers' F0 in real time across turns. We found that speakers tended to imitate each other's changes in F0 across turns that were both limited in amplitude and spread over large temporal intervals. This shows that, at the perceptual level, speakers monitor slow-varying movements in their partner's F0 with high accuracy and, at the production level, that speakers exert a very fine-tuned control on their laryngeal vibrator in order to imitate these F0 variations. Remarkably, F0 convergence across turns was found to occur in spite of the large melodic variations typically associated with reading turns. Our study sheds new light on speakers' perceptual tracking of F0 in speech processing, and the impact of this perceptual tracking on speech production.

SUBMITTER: Aubanel V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7197779 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Speaking to a common tune: Between-speaker convergence in voice fundamental frequency in a joint speech production task.

Aubanel Vincent V Nguyen Noël N

PloS one 20200504 5

Recent research on speech communication has revealed a tendency for speakers to imitate at least some of the characteristics of their interlocutor's speech sound shape. This phenomenon, referred to as phonetic convergence, entails a moment-to-moment adaptation of the speaker's speech targets to the perceived interlocutor's speech. It is thought to contribute to setting up a conversational common ground between speakers and to facilitate mutual understanding. However, it remains uncertain to what ...[more]

PMID: 32365075

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Project description:ObjectivesUnderstanding speech in real life can be challenging and effortful, such as in multiple-talker listening conditions. Fundamental frequency ( fo ) and vocal-tract length ( vtl ) voice cues can help listeners segregate between talkers, enhancing speech perception in adverse listening conditions. Previous research showed lower sensitivity to fo and vtl voice cues when speech signal was degraded, such as in cochlear implant hearing and vocoder-listening compared to normal hearing, likely contributing to difficulties in understanding speech in adverse listening. Nevertheless, when multiple talkers are present, familiarity with a talker's voice, via training or exposure, could provide a speech intelligibility benefit. In this study, the objective was to assess how an implicit short-term voice training could affect perceptual discrimination of voice cues ( fo+vtl ), measured in sensitivity and listening effort, with or without vocoder degradations.DesignVoice training was provided via listening to a recording of a book segment for approximately 30 min, and answering text-related questions, to ensure engagement. Just-noticeable differences (JNDs) for fo+vtl were measured with an odd-one-out task implemented as a 3-alternative forced-choice adaptive paradigm, while simultaneously collecting pupil data. The reference voice either belonged to the trained voice or an untrained voice. Effects of voice training (trained and untrained voice), vocoding (non-vocoded and vocoded), and item variability (fixed or variable consonant-vowel triplets presented across three items) on voice cue sensitivity ( fo+vtl JNDs) and listening effort (pupillometry measurements) were analyzed.ResultsResults showed that voice training did not have a significant effect on voice cue discrimination. As expected, fo+vtl JNDs were significantly larger for vocoded conditions than for non-vocoded conditions and with variable item presentations than fixed item presentations. Generalized additive mixed models analysis of pupil dilation over the time course of stimulus presentation showed that pupil dilation was significantly larger during fo+vtl discrimination while listening to untrained voices compared to trained voices, but only for vocoder-degraded speech. Peak pupil dilation was significantly larger for vocoded conditions compared to non-vocoded conditions and variable items increased the pupil baseline relative to fixed items, which could suggest a higher anticipated task difficulty.ConclusionsIn this study, even though short voice training did not lead to improved sensitivity to small fo+vtl voice cue differences at the discrimination threshold level, voice training still resulted in reduced listening effort for discrimination among vocoded voice cues.

Dataset Information

Speaking to a common tune: Between-speaker convergence in voice fundamental frequency in a joint speech production task.

Publications

Speaking to a common tune: Between-speaker convergence in voice fundamental frequency in a joint speech production task.

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