TY - JOUR
T1 - Synthesized speech intelligibility and persuasion : speech rate and non-native listeners
AU - Jones, Caroline
AU - Berry, Lynn
AU - Stevens, Catherine J.
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - This experiment assessed the effect of variation in speech rate on comprehension and persuasiveness of a message presented in text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis to native and non-native listeners. Eighty non-native speakers of English and 80 native speakers of Australian English were randomly assigned to listen to eight banking product descriptions under one of four conditions: normal rate (155 words per minute) with no background noise, normal rate with multi-talker background noise (+6 dB SNR), fast-normal (178 words per minute) with no background noise, and fast-normal with multi-talker background noise. Participants completed comprehension tests and rated each product’s usefulness. A faster rate lowers comprehension for both native and non-native listeners but does not influence the persuasiveness of the message. The findings have implications for the selection of speech rates for persuasive messages delivered to native and non-native listeners using TTS.
AB - This experiment assessed the effect of variation in speech rate on comprehension and persuasiveness of a message presented in text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis to native and non-native listeners. Eighty non-native speakers of English and 80 native speakers of Australian English were randomly assigned to listen to eight banking product descriptions under one of four conditions: normal rate (155 words per minute) with no background noise, normal rate with multi-talker background noise (+6 dB SNR), fast-normal (178 words per minute) with no background noise, and fast-normal with multi-talker background noise. Participants completed comprehension tests and rated each product’s usefulness. A faster rate lowers comprehension for both native and non-native listeners but does not influence the persuasiveness of the message. The findings have implications for the selection of speech rates for persuasive messages delivered to native and non-native listeners using TTS.
KW - auditory perception
KW - comprehension
KW - second language acquisition
KW - speech perception
KW - speech synthesis
KW - speech, intelligibility of
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/45924
U2 - 10.1016/j.csl.2007.03.001
DO - 10.1016/j.csl.2007.03.001
M3 - Article
SN - 0885-2308
JO - Computer Speech & Language
JF - Computer Speech & Language
ER -