title: Acoustic and perceptual characteristics of vowels produced during simultaneous communication.
abstract: This study investigated the acoustical and perceptual characteristics of vowels in speech produced during simultaneous communication (SC). Twelve normal hearing, experienced sign language users were recorded under SC and speech alone (SA) conditions speaking a set of sentences containing monosyllabic words designed for measurement of vowel duration, formant frequencies, and fundamental frequency in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) syllables and 60 listeners audited the speech samples. Although results indicated longer sentence and vowel durations for SC than SA, the data showed no difference in spectral characteristics of vowels produced during SC versus SA, indicating no degradation of vowel spectrum by rate alteration during SC. Further, no difference was found in listeners' ability to identify vowels produced during SC versus SA, indicating no degradation of vowel perceptual cues during SC. These conclusions are consistent with previous research indicating that temporal alterations produced by SC do not produce degradation of segmental acoustical characteristics of spoken English.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to (1) describe simultaneous communication; (2) explain the role of simultaneous communication in communication with children who are deaf; (3) describe vowel acoustics in English speech; (4) discuss methods of measuring vowel perception; (5) specify the acoustic characteristics of vowels produced during simultaneous communication; and (6) specify the ability of listeners to perceive vowels in speech produced during simultaneous communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, State University of New York, 218 Sturges Hall, One College Circle, Geneseo, NY 14454, USA. schiav@geneseo.edu
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schiavetti
authors.forename: Dale Evan
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Metz
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Janie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borges
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schultz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008369:Manual Communication; D015588:Observer Variation; D012813:Sign Language; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013637:Tape Recording