Visual Influences on Alignment to Voice Onset Time

Abstract

These results show that, like auditory speech, visual speech information can induce speech alignment to a phonetically relevant property of an utterance.

Visibility of speech articulation enhances auditory phonetic convergence

“…The results of R. M. Miller et al (2010) and Sanchez et al (2010) are consistent with evidence from the speech perception literature for the multimodal nature of speech perception (for a review, see Rosenblum, 2008). It has long been understood that visible speech information can change the perception of auditory speech (e.g., McGurk & MacDonald, 1976).…”

“…As we previously discussed, evidence already suggests that the information to which perceivers align is available in visual displays of speech (R. M. Miller et al, 2010;Sanchez et al, 2010). By introducing noise to the auditory modality, perceivers may be forced to rely more on the information available within the visual modality.…”

“…Some have argued that phonetic convergence may serve as evidence for a link between the perception and production mechanisms of speech, which may be suggestive of a common currency between the processes of speech perception and speech production (for a review, see Fowler, 2004). The crossmodal nature of the findings of R. M. Miller et al (2010) and Sanchez et al (2010) suggest that the information to which perceivers converge (and the information that raters use to assess convergence) is available across sensory modalities, perhaps taking the form of amodal articulatory gestures. As such, this articulatory information would serve as the common currency between the processes of speech perception and speech production (Fowler, 2004;Shockley et al, 2004).…”

“…Sanchez, Miller, and Rosenblum (2010) found that the shadowed utterances of auditory /pa/ dubbed onto visible articulations of /pa/ are modulated by the visible rate of articulation. If the visible articulation is produced at a slow rate, then shadowed utterances of /pa/ are produced with longer voice onset times (VOTs).…”

“…Even within each of the studies above, researchers have reported a great deal of variability in convergence among participants, depending on gender consistency between the model and the shadower, as well as the social purpose established between the interlocutors (e.g., R. M. Miller et al, 2010;Namy et al, 2002;Pardo et al, 2013). Because the goal of the present investigation was not to adjudicate the individual differences in phonetic convergence behavior, we employed a sample of female participants shadowing the spoken utterances of a single female model, on the basis of our own success with this method in prior work (e.g., Dias & Rosenblum, 2011;Sanchez et al, 2010; see also Delvaux & Soquet, 2007). We will address possible limitations in the generalizability of the results imposed by the sample in the General Discussion.…”