Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2013 Apr;56(2):458-70. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2012/11-0283).
In this study, the authors investigated the hypothesis that the perceived tight temporal synchrony of speech and gesture is evidence of an integrated spoken language and manual gesture communication system. It was hypothesized that experimental manipulations of the spoken response would affect the timing of deictic gestures.
The authors manipulated syllable position and contrastive stress in compound words in multiword utterances by using a repeated-measures design to investigate the degree of synchronization of speech and pointing gestures produced by 15 American English speakers. Acoustic measures were compared with the gesture movement recorded via capacitance.
Although most participants began a gesture before the target word, the temporal parameters of the gesture changed as a function of syllable position and prosody. Syllables with contrastive stress in the 2nd position of compound words were the longest in duration and also most consistently affected the timing of gestures, as measured by several dependent measures.
Increasing the stress of a syllable significantly affected the timing of a corresponding gesture, notably for syllables in the 2nd position of words that would not typically be stressed. The findings highlight the need to consider the interaction of gestures and spoken language production from a motor-based perspective of coordination.
在这项研究中，作者们提出了一个假设，即言语和手势之间感知到的紧密时间同步性是口语和手动手势交际系统整合的证据。假设认为，对口语反应的实验操作会影响指示手势的时间。
作者们通过使用重复测量设计来操纵复合词中的音节位置和对比重音，以研究 15 位美国英语说话者产生的言语和指向手势的同步程度。声学测量与电容记录的手势运动进行了比较。
尽管大多数参与者在目标词之前开始做手势，但手势的时间参数会随着音节位置和韵律的变化而变化。在复合词的第二个位置有对比重音的音节在时长上最长，并且在通过几个依赖测量来衡量时，也最一致地影响手势的时间。
增加音节的重音会显著影响相应手势的时间，特别是对于通常不会重读的单词的第二个位置的音节。这些发现突出了从协调的基于运动的角度考虑手势和口语产生之间相互作用的必要性。
