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

• 批准号: 2126897
• 负责人: Joseph Stephens
• 金额: $ 32.06万
• 依托单位: North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University
• 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=2126897&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Enhancing; Speech; Science

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.

该奖项是根据2021年《美国救援计划法》（公法117-2）全部或部分资助的。近年来，自动化语音识别系统已变得更加准确和广泛使用。但是，这些系统仍然无法处理语音可变性以及人类听众所能。此外，对于代表性不足的群体而言，语音技术往往有效地工作较少。该项目将通过调查人类听众如何理解可变语音，以及增加代表性不足群体在语音科学领域的能力和参与来解决这些问题。这项研究将对有关人类言语感知的运作方式的科学知识做出重要贡献。这些贡献将与改善自动语音识别系统直接相关，后者在技术，医疗保健和教育中变得无处不在。该项目还将大大增强北卡罗来纳州A＆T州立大学的语音科学研究能力，该大学是该国历史上历史上最大的黑人大学，并将支持NC A＆T和宾夕法尼亚州立大学（Penn State University in Collaborating Institation）的培训和参与不足的培训和参与。该项目的研究和培训成果将有助于使语音科学和技术更有效，更公平。语音科学中的关键但未解决的问题是，尽管语音信号高度可变，但人类听众如何实现强大的语音感知。语音感知理论对基本假设不同意：例如，一些理论表明，语音感知主要取决于识别声学模式，而其他理论则表明听众认为引起语音听起来的人声动作。该项目将通过调查共体会补偿现象（CFC）来测试和改善这些竞争理论，这是听众对语音段的看法受周围语音的特性影响的发现。将使用几项实验来检查CFC如何在语音可变性（例如说话者的可变性，利率变异性和竞争语音）的条件下工作，以及如何受到学习的影响。此外，该项目将通过（a）为言语科学的学生提供研究培训的研究培训，（b）在A＆T和Penn State的研究人员之间进行合作，以及（c）增强教师发展的机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过评估基金会的支持，并将其视为基金会的支持，并反映了基金会的支持。