How speakers interrupt themselves in managing problems in speaking: evidence from self-repairs

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Speech Production
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Speakers frequently encounter errors during speech production.
• Self-repair is a common phenomenon in spoken language.
• A trade-off exists between speech accuracy and fluency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the timing of speech repairs.
• To determine whether speakers prioritize accuracy or fluency during self-correction.
• To analyze the relationship between error detection and repair initiation.

Main Methods:

• Corpus analysis of 448 speech repairs.
• Classification of repairs into major and minor types.
• Measurement of the interval between speech suspension and repair production.

Main Results:

• Speakers did not interrupt themselves immediately upon detecting a speech problem.
• Repairs were initiated at the point when the speaker was ready to produce the correction.
• Analysis indicated a preference for fluency over immediate accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that speakers strategically manage speech flow.
• Fluency is prioritized over immediate error correction in spontaneous speech.
• This behavior reflects a cognitive strategy balancing communication efficiency and accuracy.