Situational cue and strategy influence on speechreading

The influence of situational cues and reasoning strategies on speechreading was studied in normal-hearing and minimally hearing-impaired adults. Everyday Speech Sentences (Davis & Silverman, 1968) produced by a female talker were videotaped without sound in the context of a visual background scene. A non-verbal acoustic signal was matched to each sentence and dubbed onto the recording. Thus, each test item consisted of an inaudible sentence presented with an optical and acoustic situational cue. The experimental task was structured so that subjects speechread sentences using deductive or inductive reasoning strategies. Results demonstrated greater success in speechreading when sentences were matched with related situational cues than when unrelated cues were provided. This difference was noted only when inductive reasoning was used. The findings suggest that situational cues are most useful to the speechreader when he can be assured that a strong relationship exists between the spoken message and the talker's situational background.