Abstract

Electropalatography (EPG) has proven to be a useful clinical and research tool for measuring tongue-to-palate contact. Research has shown sensorimotor adaptation to an EPG device may be possible following a short period of speech practice. This study was developed in order to better understand how a listeners' perception of speech clarity is effected by the presence of a relatively thin artificial pseudopalate in the speakers' oral cavity. Twenty listeners rated 220 speech stimuli on a visual analog scale ranging from normal to very distorted speech clarity. The stimuli included two different American English sentences. Speech clarity ratings were looked at as a function of the gender of the listener, the gender of the speaker, the type of speech sounds being heard, and the ability of the speakers to adapt their articulatory patterns over a period of 20 minutes. The results indicated that with the pseudopalate in place male speakers were generally rated by the listeners as having more distorted speech articulation than female speakers, especially for stop-loaded sentences. Overall, fricative-loaded sentences received higher articulation ratings than stop-loaded sentences. Finally, an adaptation period of 20 minutes showed significant improvement in speech articulation in comparison to ratings immediately following pseudopalate placement, however speech remained significantly distorted.

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2009-06-22

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd2975

Keywords

artificial pseudopalate, adaptation, perception, obstruents

Language

English

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