Articles tagged with Speech
A recent study from the University of Surrey found that remote medical interpreting (RMI) can compromise the quality of communication in healthcare settings. Interpreters reported mixed experiences with technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for careful consideration of interpreting methods based on the nature o...
A new study found that foreign accents can mitigate judgment for grammatical errors, except in cases where listeners are highly conscientious. The research suggests that English speakers are generally tolerant of grammatical errors when the speaker has a foreign accent.
Researchers found that Democrats and Republicans generally agree on what to censor when it comes to hate speech, with both parties prioritizing similar targets and severity levels. The study's findings suggest that social media companies can find consensus policies that get broad support, even in a highly polarized era.
Researchers found that humans slow their speech when talking to dogs to match the pets' receptive abilities, allowing for better understanding of commands. The study also revealed that dogs respond well to slower tempos and prosody in human speech.
Researchers analyzed audio and motion data from unstructured face-to-face conversations to investigate the multimodal dynamic between speech and movements. The study found synchronization at all timescales of conversation, suggesting that turn-taking dynamics play a crucial role in coordinating verbal and nonverbal cues.
A new study found that consonant lengthening is a universal trait in many languages, helping listeners identify word boundaries. The researchers analyzed data from the DoReCo corpus and found evidence of lengthening in 43 out of 51 languages.
Researchers developed a multi-variable model called Hear-MHE that analyzes speech patterns to identify symptoms of minimal hepatic encephalopathy. The test shows promise in predicting overt hepatic encephalopathy and could lead to earlier diagnosis and improved treatment.
A recent study found that national politics predominantly use abstract, moralized, and power-centric language, lacking local common ground. This shift is thought to fuel partisan animosity and provoke anger.
A new Northwestern Medicine study identifies critical language connector sites in the cerebral cortex that work together to produce language. These sites serve as connectors between subnetworks of people, serving a similar function for language in the brain.
A pilot study found that voice changes recorded on a smartphone can signal an impending flare-up of COPD symptoms. Researchers analyzed the voices of 28 people with COPD and discovered higher pitched tones and 'jitter' before an exacerbation occurred.
A study of children's conversations with caretakers found that the Care/Harm foundation emerges at a younger age than other moral foundations, appearing in one-year-olds' speech. The study also showed that children tend to discuss fairness while caretakers focus on Purity/Degradation.
Research by Lancaster University found that people in higher social grades, including corporate world and education sectors, are adopting each other's speech patterns to be more inclusive. This 'resonance' has increased over the past 20 years, particularly among those with high social status.
Researchers found that American athletes borrow Canadian English accent features for hockey-specific terms and jargon, but not underlying pronunciation rules. Adopting these dialects is a way players portray their identity through speech.
A new study from Southern Methodist University reveals that passive video use among toddlers can hinder language development, but caregivers' reasons for exposing them to digital media can lessen the negative impact. When videos are used for educational or social purposes, such as video chats with family members, the risk of stunted la...
A new study finds that Americans from the South mimic Southern speech patterns when actually listening to a Southerner, but only shift their speech when told they're hearing a Southerner. Non-Southerners, however, are influenced by stereotypes and only shift their speech when told so.
Researchers at Lancaster University find that the 'r' sound is becoming weaker in England, with most young speakers softening it to an elongation of the vowel. This decline is predicted to continue, potentially erasing traditional dialects and linguistic homogenization.
Researchers investigate how creaky voice use varies across different areas of Sydney, finding that the area's diversity plays a significant role. The study reveals mixed results regarding the influence of gender on creaky voice use, with no statistically significant difference found between men and women.
Researchers found that phonetic encoding in babies emerged gradually over the first year of life, beginning with labial sounds and nasal sounds. Parents should speak to their babies using sing-song speech as soon as possible to help them learn language.
A team of researchers at Penn State found that a moderate talking speed for digital assistants increases user likelihood to use them. Conversation-like interactions also mitigate negative effects and increase user trust.
A linguistic phenomenon reveals specific rules governing sentence construction, shedding light on universal features of human language. The researchers found that 'whom of which' obeys strict rules, contributing to a larger discussion about syntax and the existence of pied piping.
Researchers found that white English speakers' accents have shifted away from traditional Southern pronunciation since Generation X. The study, published in Language Variation and Change, used archived and new recordings to analyze vowel patterns, finding distinct changes between baby boomers and Gen X.
A new dictionary provides a comprehensive overview of Shakespeare's language, revealing words with reduced mental ability and plant hybrids. The Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language offers insights into the linguistic thumbprints of plays and characters, as well as the networks of character interaction.
Researchers expand simple view of reading framework using meta-analytic structural equation modeling, validating its effectiveness for SFL learners. Decoding skills and language comprehension skills are identified as primary components for effective SFL reading instruction.
Scientists studied vocal behavior of ten mothers and found they articulated better and expressed more positive emotions when speaking to their babies or puppies. This hyperarticulation led to clearer pronunciation of words and easier processing for infants.
A new study analyzing 57 million Facebook posts found that the amount of controversy generated by a post is strongly linked to its speed of spread. The study suggests that posts reaching a wide audience quickly are more likely to be associated with negative or controversial reactions, regardless of topic.
Researchers argue that emoji-based language systems can improve communication between patients and physicians, particularly for vulnerable populations such as those with stroke or vocal impairments. The use of emoji can condense surveys and questionnaires, increasing response rates and appealing to patients.
Researchers have developed an effective treatment that accelerates recovery after stroke by modulating astrocyte reactivity and cortical connectivity. The treatment, which involves administering a molecule called C3a in nasal drops, has shown positive results in mice with stroke, offering new hope for faster and better recovery.
The study uses neural recordings and computer modeling to show that phonetic information is encoded differently when speech stands out versus being drowned out. This finding could help develop more accurate hearing aids.
A new study found that male infants make 10% more utterances in the first year compared to females, but this difference switches direction by the second year. The researchers suggest that male infants may have an evolutionary advantage due to their higher mortality rate in the first year.
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that officers' first 45 words during a vehicle stop with a Black driver can indicate how the stop will end. The study discovered a unique 'linguistic signature' that characterizes escalated stops, where officers give an order without stating the reaso...
Researchers discovered that students working with a social robot featuring a charismatic voice produced more original and elaborate ideas compared to those who interacted with an identical robot using a flat voice. The study found that the charismatic robot's engaging tone increased team positivity, perceived effectiveness, and creativ...
A new, free online language course is available to learn the Ojibwe language, spoken in Indigenous communities around the Great Lakes. The course uses spaced repetition software to help learners memorize vocabulary and grammar.
Researchers found that people produce louder and slower speech with less pitch variation when communicating with AI systems, while clearer speech improves comprehension. The study aims to improve AI's ability to understand human speech and investigate language changes as technology advances.
Researchers have found that hearing aid users are dissatisfied with the sound quality of music when using their hearing aids. However, some manufacturers' music programs have improved significantly. The team tested 200 recordings and found that two brands stood out in terms of music quality.
Strokes can be largely prevented through education and lifestyle changes, such as moving more, healthy eating, and managing blood pressure. The American Stroke Association is launching a digital tool to educate people on stroke warning signs and risk factors, particularly for diverse populations.
A new study found that Mexican American people who spoke only Spanish had worse neurologic outcomes three months after a stroke compared to those who spoke English or were bilingual. The study involved 1,096 participants and controlled for factors such as education and blood pressure.
A machine-learning model was trained on 10 million tweets to infer users' subjective wellbeing. The study found that New Year's Day is the most popular holiday, followed by Defender of the Fatherland Day and International Women's Day. The researchers also discovered gender differences in attitudes towards certain holidays.
A new method for estimating sound direction using monaural cues has been proposed by researchers at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The approach uses modulation in the frequency spectrum of the received signal to detect the signal direction, achieving accurate estimates even with human monaural hearing.
A machine-learning analysis of 59 million online posts reveals associations between real-world events and various types of hate speech, including anti-immigration and LGBTQ-related slurs. The study suggests a complex relationship between triggering events and online hate speech, with potential implications for mitigating such speech.
A new American Heart Association scientific statement emphasizes the importance of rapid evaluation for TIA, which can lead to full-blown stroke. The statement offers a standardized approach to evaluating people with suspected TIA, including guidance for hospitals in rural areas with limited resources.
A literature review reveals speech patterns can accurately diagnose psychiatric disorders, measure severity and predict onset. Automated analysis outperforms subjective measures like interviews or questionnaires.
Seal pups possess an innate ability to change their voice pitch and volume, as well as recognize and respond to rhythmic sounds. This study suggests a possible evolutionary link between human-like language abilities and vocal plasticity in seals.
Research suggests a universal pattern in profanity across different languages, with the lack of approximants being a common feature when perceiving swear words. Participants rated pseudo-words with and without approximants differently, indicating that approximant-free words were more likely to be considered swear words.
A team from California Institute of Technology has developed a brain-machine interface device that can predict internal speech in patients with tetraplegia. The device, trained on single neurons in the supramarginal gyrus, achieved accuracy up to 91% in predicting eight words.
A linguistic analysis of Nazi propaganda shows that dehumanization of Jews shifted over time, with earlier propaganda focusing on disengaging moral concern and later propaganda portraying Jews as having a greater capacity for agency. This study suggests that dehumanization can motivate violence by reducing moral concern for victim groups.
A comprehensive study compared the accuracy of human speaker identification with that of an automatic-speaker-recognition system. The forensic-voice-comparison system performed better than all tested listeners, including judges and jurors. This finding has significant implications for courtroom proceedings.
A new study by NYU researchers reveals that our brains use a 'time-stamp' mechanism to process the order of incoming sounds, allowing us to correctly recognize words being said. The brain achieves this feat by correlating different neural populations with specific speech sounds and time-stamping each sound with its relative order.
A study of 16 cats found they can differentiate their owner's voice from a stranger's, even when tone is changed. This suggests that cats form strong bonds with their owners based on experience of the speaker's voice.
Researchers discovered that humans automatically integrate extralinguistic information into grammatical processing, improving communication. The study used EEG data from 37 native Russian speakers, finding both linguistic and extralinguistic features processed simultaneously.
A study by researchers at Linköping University and the Oregon Health and Science University has discovered that many cells in the inner ear react simultaneously to low-frequency sound, making it easier to experience these sounds. This new understanding may lead to improved cochlear implants for people with severe hearing impairments.
A study published in Early Education and Development journal found that preschoolers with stronger vocabulary skills at the start of the year display more positive engagement with teachers and peers. The researchers also discovered that inhibitory control is crucial for classroom engagement and learning.
Scientists have identified two areas of the auditory cortex specialized to recognize human voice sounds without linguistic meaning. These regions help react to sound cues allowing people to identify characteristics of the person speaking, such as gender, age, and height. This discovery sheds light on neurological disorders affecting vo...
Researchers at UVA have created a new AI tool called SITHCon that can decode speech in different speeds, enabling machines to process information more efficiently. This breakthrough technology has the potential to alter how artificial neural networks 'think' and reduce AI's massive carbon footprint.
Researchers found that hearing one's own voice is critical for sense of agency over speech, helping to understand auditory hallucinations and improve VR experiences. The study's findings suggest a close connection between recognizing one's own voice and feeling in control.
Research by University of Cambridge academics found that children as old as five or six struggle to reconcile inference and perspective, leading to difficulties in conversations. Combining these skills is crucial for understanding 'implicatures' - inferences made in conversation when people mean more than they say.
Researchers analyzed 47,112 Reddit comments to identify elements of tone and style linked to hyperpartisan echo chambers. Language features such as strong emotion, familiarity pronouns, and face-to-face conversation markers are common in hyperpartisan comments.
A study found that domesticated pigs and horses, as well as Asian wild horses, can tell the difference between positively and negatively charged sounds. The animals reacted stronger to negatively charged voices and showed mirroring of emotions.
Researchers mapped neural networks in marmoset and macaque monkeys to find that multiple areas in the frontal lobe control vocalization, contradicting a long-held view. This discovery could lead to a better understanding of speech disorders such as stuttering and apraxia.
A Carnegie Mellon University researcher is working to create technology that supports health and expands access to marginalized communities. Her research explores how older Black adults interact with voice assistant devices, highlighting challenges such as difficulty phrasing questions and 'code-switching' to adapt to formal dialects.
New research reveals that infants as young as 4 months can differentiate between speech and song based on acoustic features such as pitch and rhythm. The study also found that exaggerated pitch is related to better neural tracking of infant-directed speech.