Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how length and location of speech pausing affects a listeners' perception of likability and communication effectiveness. Furthermore, the end goal of this study is to understand how to better assess atypical speech pause for persons with aphasia (PWA). Speech samples were collected from two neurotypical speakers over the age of 75. The speech samples were the recorded responses of picture description tasks found in the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE). These speech samples were then modified to include artificial pauses located both within sentence and between sentence, as well as differing lengths of three seconds, five seconds, and seven seconds. Forty-one listeners (31 female, 8 male) were recruited to listen to the 28 speech samples. Using a visual analogy scale, listeners rated each sample on their perception of likability and communication effectiveness. Communication effectiveness and likability ratings were significantly higher for between-utterance pauses. Likewise, ratings were highest for the baseline (no pause) stimuli and decreased as pause length increased. Across all conditions, ratings for the male speaker were rated slightly greater than that of the female speaker. Results of this study provide preliminary evidence that longer speech pause, especially found within utterance, affect the likability and communication effectiveness of PWA. It is hoped that additional research regarding speech pause will be conducted to determine how best to assess speech pause in PWA.

Degree

MS

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Communication Disorders

Rights

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

Date Submitted

2023-04-03

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd12718

Keywords

Aphasia, speech pause, prosody, speech tempo, speaker likability

Language

english

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