Speaker variations influence speechreading speed for dynamic faces.
We investigated the influence of task-irrelevant speaker variations on speechreading performance. In three experiments with video digitised faces presented either in dynamic, static-sequential, or static mode, participants performed speeded classifications on vowel utterances (German vowels /u/ and /i/). A Garner interference paradigm was used, in which speaker identity was task-irrelevant but could be either correlated, constant, or orthogonal to the vowel uttered. Reaction times for facial speech classifications were slowed by task-irrelevant speaker variations for dynamic stimuli. The results are discussed with reference to distributed models of face perception (Haxby et al, 2000 Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4 223-233) and the relevance of both dynamic information and speaker characteristics for speechreading.
Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, 58 Hillhead Street, Glasgow G12 8QB, Scotland, UK. j.kaufmann@psy.gla.ac.uk
Jürgen M
JM
Kaufmann
Stefan R
SR
Schweinberger
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005145:Face / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008085:Lipreading; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D014743:Videotape Recording / Q000379:methods; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*