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Effects of Repeated Listening Experiences on the Recognition of Synthetic Speech by Individuals With Severe Intellectual Disabilities

Contact author: Rajinder Koul, Department of Speech-Language and Hearing Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, 3601 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79430. Email: Rajinder.Koul{at}ttuhsc.edu

PURPOSE: To examine the perception of synthetic speech by individuals with severe intellectual disabilities using a closed-response format task.

METHOD: Participants were 14 individuals with severe intellectual disabilities and a group of 14 typical individuals. A between-groups design was used to compare the performance of the 2 groups on word identification accuracy and word latency tasks. Data were analyzed using a repeated measures design.

RESULTS: The results indicated that the performance of a group of individuals with severe intellectual disabilities was significantly poorer (p < .05) than that of typical individuals on the word identification task. Data analyzed for practice effects indicated that individuals with severe intellectual disabilities demonstrated a significant reduction (p < .01) in their word latency scores across sessions. Furthermore, there was an absence of significant effect (p > .01) of stimulus type (i.e., repeated vs. novel), indicating that individuals with intellectual disabilities are able to generalize their knowledge of the acoustic–phonetic properties of synthetic speech to novel stimuli.

CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that persons with severe intellectual impairments become more proficient at recognizing synthetic speech as a result of repeated exposure to it. These results have significant clinical implications for people who use speech-generating devices.

KEY WORDS: synthetic speech, augmentative and alternative communication, mental retardation, speech assistive technology, speech perception

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This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. L. Francis, H. C. Nusbaum, and K. Fenn Effects of Training on the Acoustic Phonetic Representation of Synthetic Speech J Speech Lang Hear Res, December 1, 2007; 50(6): 1445 - 1465. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]