A comparative study of the pitch and duration characteristics of impromptu speaking and oral reading∗

Durational Characteristics of Young Adults during Speaking and Reading Tasks

“…= 119, p < 0.05) for all subjects for the reading of the conver sational speech sample than for the reading of the standard reading passage. These read ing rates are higher than most previously reported [Abrams et a!., 1944, cited in Licklider andMiller, 1951;Darlcy, 1940;Franke, 1939;Fairbanks, 1960;Snidecor, 1943 , Table II. Mean percents and SD for total speaking time for articulation, phonation, voiceless speaking and pause time for the three tasks for all subjects (n = 120), male subjects (n = 60) and female subjects (n = 60) Licklider and Miller, 1951] to 183 wpm [Snidecor, 1943] as compared with a mean for all subjects of 188.4 wpm for the reading of the standard reading passage in the present study.…”

“…Previously reported phonation to to tal reading ratios ranged from 0.412 [Bailey, 1930] to 0.780 [Gilbert and Burk, 1969] and phonation to total speaking ratios ranged from 0.57 [Hanley, 1951] to 0.66 [Snidecor, 1943] as compared with 0.60 for reading and 0.51 for speaking in the present study.…”

“…In order to determine the differences among mea sures of an impromptu speaking task and an oral reading of the same material, a method modified from one reported by Snidecor [ 1943] was employed. Subjects were first asked to speak as if in conversation with the experimenter.…”

“…In addition, durational characteristics might re veal information relative to various person ality constants [Goldman-Eisler, 1961], cog nitive processing, social and affective state variables and lexical and structural levels of decision making processes [Rochester, 1973], Studies in which the duration of speech signals has been quantified have taken two basic forms: those which have investigated the duration of individual speech segments [Belasco, 1953;Heffner, 1937;House and Fairbanks, 1953;Klatt, 1976;Parmenterand Trevino, 1935;Umeda, 1975Umeda, , 1977 and those which have been concerned with lon ger elements of speech [Agncllo, 1963;Bai ley, 1930;Darley, 1940;Franke, 1939;Gil bert and Burk, 1969;Goldman-Eisler, 1956, 1968, 1972Grosjean and Collins, 1979;Kelly and Steer, 1949;Miller, 1981;Mysak. 1959;Mysak and Han ley, 1958;Ramsay and Law, 1966;Snidecor, 1943Snidecor, , 1951.…”

Some Spectral Characteristics of Airflow Signals Associated with Oral Reading

“…(at which point, their ampli tudes are about 1/10 of the maximum com ponents). The use of about 30-Hz low-pass filtering, therefore, provides a reasonable compromise which retains phonetic-syllabic components while reducing the 40-to 50-Hz components and very low vocal fundamental frequencies (which can be as low as 30-40 Hz) [Fairbanks, 1940;Snidecor, 1943]. The information given in this study should also be useful in developing strategies of auto matic analysis of aerodynamic events during connected utterances [Lubker, 1970;Horn andCooke.…”