Abstract

This study examined the effect on spatiotemporal variability of speech in reading threesyllable, five-syllable, and eight-syllable phrases in blocked, predictable, or unpredictable order. This was done to address the need in the field for a greater understanding of the interactions of stimulus length and stimulus presentation order. The experiment was completed with 35 typically speaking young adult participants. Participants read variable stimuli in the different presentation orders to measure the spatiotemporal variability in different conditions with electromagnetic articulography and audio recording software tracking their speech. The statistical analysis main condition effect revealed a significant impact on all phrase lengths between a spatiotemporal index using three samples versus a spatiotemporal index using 10 samples, with a systematic difference between the two, although pair-wise comparisons were mixed. A statistically significant difference was found between the blocked and predictable conditions, but not in pair-wise comparison between blocked and random or predictable and random conditions. Stimulus length was found to have a significant effect on spatiotemporal variability at the five-syllable and eight-syllable level, but not at the three-syllable level. Overall, results of this study may pave the way to greater flexibility in the use of electromagnetic articulography stimuli, further understanding of the interplay between blocked, predictable, and random stimuli presentation as part of the blocked-random effect, and contribute to overall research about speech motor schema size.

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

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

Date Submitted

2026-06-10

Document Type

Thesis

Keywords

blocked-random effect, spatiotemporal index (STI), electromagnetic articulography (EMA)

Language

english

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