Consistency of Order Effects in Higher Effort Speaking Styles Between Sessions

Area of Science:

• Speech Science
• Phonetics
• Auditory Perception

Background:

• Understanding how speech production is affected by different speech styles is crucial for speech therapy and communication research.
• Investigating the impact of instructional order on speech parameters like intensity and articulation provides insights into motor learning and speech adaptation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine how the order of instruction for clear and loud speech styles influences speech characteristics.
• To assess the consistency of clear and loud speech responses across multiple sessions.

Main Methods:

• Participants were divided into two groups: Clear-Loud and Loud-Clear, based on the order of speech style instruction (habitual, clear, loud).
• Acoustic and kinematic data were collected for sentences produced in each speech style across two sessions, one week apart.
• Speech intensity, lip aperture range, and speech rate were analyzed for significant differences between groups and sessions.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found between groups for the habitual speech style.
• The Clear-Loud group showed progressive increases in speech intensity from habitual to clear to loud styles.
• The Loud-Clear group maintained loud speech intensity levels during the clear speech style, indicating carry-over effects.

Conclusions:

• Instructional order significantly impacts speech production, particularly for speech intensity, lip aperture, and speech rate.
• Talkers tend to retain characteristics of a previously performed higher-effort speech style in subsequent styles.
• These findings have implications for designing effective speech training protocols and understanding speech motor control.