Influence of analogy instruction for pitch variation on perceptual ratings of other speech parameters

Analogy is the similarity of different concepts on which a comparison can be based. Recently, an analogy of "waves at sea" was shown to be effective in modulating fundamental frequency (F0) variation. Perceptions of intonation were not examined, as the primary aim of the work was to determine whether analogy instruction had a negative impact on other parameters of the speech signal compared with explicit instruction. The purpose of this study was (a) to determine whether changes in the standard deviation of F0, acoustically, resulted in similar changes in the perception of pitch variability and (b) to determine the perceptual influence of analogy vs. explicit instructions on speech naturalness, loudness, and rate.

Ten speech-language pathologists were asked to listen to and rate pitch variation, speech naturalness, loudness, and rate for 74 Cantonese speech samples using a visual analogue scale, which allowed raters to indicate their subjective perceptions of each parameter.

It is revealed that listeners perceived pitch variation to be greater and speech to be more natural in analogy-instructed, rather than explicitly instructed, speech. No differences were perceived for ratings of speech loudness or speech rate.

It is concluded that analogy instruction has a less negative impact on the naturalness of speech than explicit instruction and may provide a better method by which to manipulate desired pitch variation.