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Speech rates converge in scripted turn-taking conversations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2015

BENJAMIN G. SCHULTZ ,
IRENA O’BRIEN ,
NATALIE PHILLIPS ,
DAVID H. McFARLAND ,
DEBRA TITONE  and
CAROLINE PALMER
BENJAMIN G. SCHULTZ
Affiliation:
McGill University
IRENA O’BRIEN
Affiliation:
McGill University
NATALIE PHILLIPS
Affiliation:
Concordia University
DAVID H. McFARLAND
Affiliation:
Université de Montréal
DEBRA TITONE
Affiliation:
McGill University
CAROLINE PALMER*
Affiliation:
McGill University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Caroline Palmer, Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penfield Avenue, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada. E-mail: mailto:caroline.palmer@mcgill.ca
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Abstract

When speakers engage in conversation, acoustic features of their utterances sometimes converge. We examined how the speech rate of participants changed when a confederate spoke at fast or slow rates during readings of scripted dialogues. A beat-tracking algorithm extracted the periodic relations between stressed syllables (beats) from acoustic recordings. The mean interbeat interval (IBI) between successive stressed syllables was compared across speech rates. Participants’ IBIs were smaller in the fast condition than in the slow condition; the difference between participants’ and the confederate's IBIs decreased across utterances. Cross-correlational analyses demonstrated mutual influences between speakers, with greater impact of the confederate on participants’ beat rates than vice versa. Beat rates converged in scripted conversations, suggesting speakers mutually entrain to one another's beat.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 1201 - 1220
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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