Maximum speed of pitch change and how it may relate to speech

How fast speakers can change pitch voluntarily is potentially an important articulatory constraint for speech production. Previous attempts at assessing the maximum speed of pitch change have helped improve understanding of certain aspects of pitch production in speech. However, since only "response time"--time needed to complete the middle 75% of a pitch shift--was measured in previous studies, direct comparisons with speech data have been difficult. In the present study, a new experimental paradigm was adopted in which subjects produced rapid successions of pitch shifts by imitating synthesized model pitch undulation patterns. This permitted the measurement of the duration of entire pitch shifts. Native speakers of English and Mandarin participated as subjects. The speed of pitch change was measured both in terms of response time and excursion time-time needed to complete the entire pitch shift. Results show that excursion time is nearly twice as long as response time. This suggests that physiological limitation on the speed of pitch movement is greater than has been recognized. Also, it is found that the maximum speed of pitch change varies quite linearly with excursion size, and that it is different for pitch rises and falls. Comparisons of present data with data on speed of pitch change from studies of real speech found them to be largely comparable. This suggests that the maximum speed of pitch change is often approached in speech, and that the role of physiological constraints in determining the shape and alignment of F0 contours in speech is probably greater than has been appreciated.