title: Rate dependent speech processing can be speech specific: Evidence from the perceptual disappearance of words under changes in context speech rate.
abstract: The perception of reduced syllables, including function words, produced in casual speech can be made to disappear by slowing the rate at which surrounding words are spoken (Dilley & Pitt, Psychological Science, 21(11), 1664-1670. doi: 10.1177/0956797610384743 , 2010). The current study explored the domain generality of this speech-rate effect, asking whether it is induced by temporal information found only in speech. Stimuli were short word sequences (e.g., minor or child) appended to precursors that were clear speech, degraded speech (low-pass filtered or sinewave), or tone sequences, presented at a spoken rate and a slowed rate. Across three experiments, only precursors heard as intelligible speech generated a speech-rate effect (fewer reports of function words with a slowed context), suggesting that rate-dependent speech processing can be domain specific.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43220, USA. pitt.2@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pitt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1835 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH, 43220, USA.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Szostak
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Michigan State University, 1026 Red Cedar Road, East Lansing, 48824-1220, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Laura C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Dilley
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Domain generality; Phonetic perception; Speech rate; Spoken word recognition