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Collaborative Research: Enhancing Speech Science Training through Collaboration: Investigating Perception of a Variable Speech Signal

协作研究：通过协作增强语音科学训练：研究可变语音信号的感知

基本信息

批准号：
2126888
负责人：
Navin Viswanathan
金额：
$ 26.99万
依托单位：
Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2126888&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Enhancing Speech Science

项目摘要

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). In recent years, automated speech recognition systems have become much more accurate and widely used. However, these systems still cannot handle speech variability as well as human listeners can. Furthermore, speech technology tends to work less effectively for underrepresented groups. This project will address these problems by investigating how human listeners understand variable speech, and by increasing the capacity and involvement of underrepresented groups in the field of speech science. The research will make prominent contributions to scientific knowledge of how human speech perception works. These contributions will be directly relevant to improving automatic speech recognition systems, which are becoming ubiquitous in technology, healthcare, and education. The project will also significantly strengthen research capacity in speech science at North Carolina A&T State University, which is the Nation’s largest Historically Black University, and will support increased training and involvement of students from underrepresented groups at both NC A&T and at Penn State University, the collaborating institution. The research and training outcomes of the project will help to make speech science and technology both more effective and more equitable.A critical yet unsolved question in speech science is how human listeners achieve robust speech perception despite a highly variable speech signal. Theories of speech perception disagree on basic assumptions: for example, some theories suggest that speech perception depends mainly on recognizing acoustic patterns, while other theories suggest that listeners perceive the vocal tract movements that cause the speech sounds. This project will test and improve these competing theories by investigating the phenomenon of compensation for coarticulation (CfC), which is the finding that listeners’ perception of speech segments is affected by the properties of surrounding speech. Several experiments will be used to examine how CfC works in conditions of speech variability (e.g., talker variability, rate variability, and competing speech), and how CfC is affected by learning. In addition, the project will build capacity at NC A&T along three dimensions by (a) providing research training for students in speech science, (b) fostering collaborations between researchers at A&T and Penn State, and (c) enhancing opportunities for faculty development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金根据《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）提供。近年来，自动语音识别系统变得更加准确并得到广泛应用。然而，这些系统仍然无法像人类听众那样处理语音变化。此外，语音技术对于代表性不足的群体来说往往效果较差。该项目将通过研究人类听众如何理解可变语音以及提高语音科学领域代表性不足群体的能力和参与来解决这些问题。这项研究将为人类语音感知如何运作的科学知识做出重大贡献。这些贡献将与改进自动语音识别系统直接相关，该系统在技术、医疗保健和教育领域正变得无处不在。该项目还将显着加强美国最大的历史上黑人大学北卡罗来纳 A&T 州立大学的言语科学研究能力，并将支持 NC A&T 和合作机构宾夕法尼亚州立大学增加来自代表性不足群体的学生的培训和参与。该项目的研究和培训成果将有助于使语音科学和技术更加有效和更加公平。语音科学中一个关键但尚未解决的问题是，人类听众如何在高度可变的语音信号下实现稳健的语音感知。语音感知理论在基本假设上存在分歧：例如，一些理论认为语音感知主要取决于识别声学模式，而其他理论则认为听众感知引起语音的声道运动。该项目将通过研究协同发音补偿（CfC）现象来测试和改进这些相互竞争的理论，该现象发现听众对语音片段的感知受到周围语音特性的影响。将使用几个实验来检查 CfC 在语音变异性（例如，说话者变异性、语速变异性和竞争性语音）条件下如何工作，以及 CfC 如何受到学习的影响。此外，该项目还将通过以下三个方面建设 NC A&T 的能力：(a) 为言语科学的学生提供研究培训，(b) 促进 A&T 和宾夕法尼亚州立大学研究人员之间的合作，以及 (c) 增加教师发展的机会。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。