Tic Tac Toe: effects of predictability and importance on acoustic prominence in language production.
Importance and predictability each have been argued to contribute to acoustic prominence. To investigate whether these factors are independent or two aspects of the same phenomenon, naïve participants played a verbal variant of Tic Tac Toe. Both importance and predictability contributed independently to the acoustic prominence of a word, but in different ways. Predictable game moves were shorter in duration and had less pitch excursion than less predictable game moves, whereas intensity was higher for important game moves. These data also suggest that acoustic prominence is affected by both speaker-centered processes (speaker effort) and listener-centered processes (intent to signal important information to the listener).
Watson
Duane G
DG
Department of Psychology, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 603 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA. dgwatson@uiuc.edu
Arnold
Jennifer E
JE
Tanenhaus
Michael K
MK
D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007802:Language; D010898:Pitch Perception; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior
Cogn Psychol. 2000 Jun;40(4):296-340
10888342
Cognition. 2002 May;84(1):73-111
12062148
J Acoust Soc Am. 2003 Feb;113(2):1001-24
12597194
Cogn Psychol. 1998 Dec;37(3):201-42
9892548
Behav Brain Sci. 2004 Apr;27(2):169-90; discussion 190-226
15595235
Cogn Psychol. 2005 Mar;50(2):194-231
15680144
Psychol Sci. 2005 May;16(5):362-6
15869694
Cognition. 2008 Jul;108(1):69-99
18358460