Effect of cues to increase sound pressure level on respiratory kinematic patterns during connected speech

This study examined the response of the respiratory system to 3 cues used to elicit increased vocal loudness to determine whether the effects of cueing, shown previously in sentence tasks, were present in connected speech tasks and to describe differences among tasks.

Fifteen young men and 15 young women produced a 2-paragraph reading passage in response to 4 different loudness cues: comfortable loudness level, targeting 10 dB above comfortable, at what they perceived as twice their comfortable loudness, and with multitalker noise present in the background. A short monologue was produced at comfortable loudness level and with noise in the background.

Differences in respiratory strategies were demonstrated for the different cueing conditions, similar to patterns observed in sentence productions. The kinematic patterns were similar for reading and monologue; however, utterances were longer and speaking rate was slower in the monologue task.

The findings extend the results from sentences to connected speech and provide support for the hypothesis that "intention" or goals play a role in the control of respiratory function during speech. Respiratory kinematics were similar across tasks, when the same cue was used, except for differences related to breath group length and speech rate.