What a difference a syllable makes-Rhythmic reading of poetry

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Phonetics

Background:

• Poem reading involves rhythmic prediction and meter perception.
• The interplay between top-down (predictive) and bottom-up (sensory) processes in rhythm perception is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how top-down and bottom-up processes interact during the reading of metrical poetry.
• To determine if lexical meaningless syllables disrupt rhythmic prediction and how this disruption is modulated by the amount of bottom-up information.

Main Methods:

• Poems were modified by replacing syllables with the meaningless word 'tack'.
• Participants read modified poems aloud while their voice was recorded.
• Syllable onset interval (SOI) and mean syllable intensity were measured to assess stress.
• Normalized pairwise variability index (nPVI) was used to quantify rhythmic contrast.

Main Results:

• Articulation duration (SOI) of metrically strong syllables was longer than weak ones, but this effect vanished for 'tack' syllables.
• Syllable intensity captured metrical stress for 'tack' syllables only in musically active participants.
• The nPVI for SOI showed that 'tack' syllables reduced rhythmic alternation in a line, proportional to their number.

Conclusions:

• Top-down prediction alone is insufficient for maintaining rhythmic patterns when bottom-up prosodic information is minimal.
• Consistent integration of bottom-up auditory cues is necessary for stable metrical pattern prediction during speech production.