Minor Project: The Integration of Semantic and Phonological Information in Normal, Degraded, and Time-Compressed Speech

Blecourt, C. M. de and Wagner, A. and Baskent, D. (2015) Minor Project: The Integration of Semantic and Phonological Information in Normal, Degraded, and Time-Compressed Speech. Master's Thesis / Essay, Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences.

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Abstract

Understanding speech is a continuous process, which involves integrating the acoustic input signal, the semantic context, and other previous knowledge. A distorted speech signal complicates this process. Contextual information can help building expectations about the upcoming signal; it helps to compensate for loss of acoustic information from distorted speech. However, how contextual information is integrated in a distorted signal is unknown. The present study involves presenting normal, degraded (CI-simulated), and time-compressed sentences to Dutch participants with normal hearing. Their gaze fixations are captured using an eye-tracker. Listeners were presented with sentences with or without a semantically constraining verb before presenting the actual target. Participants selected one of four images on a computer screen, which contained the target, a phonological competitor, a semantic competitor, and a non-related distractor. Interaction effects between speech type and semantic condition were observed in both degraded and time-compressed speech. In normal speech, the listeners’ gaze reflected the usage of the semantic hints together with the speech signal. In degraded speech, processing and integration of preceding information was delayed, indicating slower facilitation of target words. Compared to normal speech, fewer target fixations were observed in time-compressed speech, especially when no context was present. Participants presented with time-compressed speech fail to inhibit semantically similar distractor words.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay)
Degree programme:	Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences
Thesis type:	Master's Thesis / Essay
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	15 Feb 2018 08:10
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2018 08:10
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/13633

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