Department of Linguistics, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Department of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2522 E Hartford Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA.
Cognition. 2021 May;210:104570. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104570. Epub 2021 Jan 12.
This study investigates the impact of wearing a fabric face mask on speech comprehension, an underexplored topic that can inform theories of speech production. Speakers produced sentences in three speech styles (casual, clear, positive-emotional) while in both face-masked and non-face-masked conditions. Listeners were most accurate at word identification in multi-talker babble for sentences produced in clear speech, and less accurate for casual speech (with emotional speech accuracy numerically in between). In the clear speaking style, face-masked speech was actually more intelligible than non-face-masked speech, suggesting that speakers make clarity adjustments specifically for face masks. In contrast, in the emotional condition, face-masked speech was less intelligible than non-face-masked speech, and in the casual condition, no difference was observed, suggesting that 'emotional' and 'casual' speech are not styles produced with the explicit intent to be intelligible to listeners. These findings are discussed in terms of automatic and targeted speech adaptation accounts.
本研究探讨了佩戴织物面罩对口语理解的影响，这是一个研究不足的话题，可以为言语产生理论提供信息。说话者在三种言语风格（随意、清晰、积极情绪）下，分别在戴面罩和不戴面罩的情况下说出句子。在多说话者嘈杂环境中，听众对清晰言语说出的句子进行单词识别最为准确，而对随意言语的识别准确性较低（情绪言语的准确性则处于两者之间）。在清晰的言语风格中，戴面罩的言语实际上比不戴面罩的言语更清晰，这表明说话者对面罩进行了清晰度调整。相比之下，在情绪条件下，戴面罩的言语不如不戴面罩的言语清晰，而在随意条件下，则没有观察到差异，这表明“情绪”和“随意”的言语并不是为了让听众理解而有意采用的言语风格。这些发现是根据自动和有针对性的言语适应理论进行讨论的。
