IMITATION--A TOOL FOR STUDYING SPEECH PERCEPTION

我们的研究的总体目标是使用成年人模仿他们所听到的言语的表现出的倾向，作为一种工具来探索言语感知的本质。 在最初的研究中，我们探讨了言语感知对象的性质（即，声学或发音），这是语音研究领域中备受争议的话题。 这个问题本身就是基础研究的一个重要课题。 它也有应用的影响，例如，成功的语音识别设备的设计。 我们打算确认并利用人类似乎必须模仿他人讲话的倾向。 我们还建议探讨当模仿发生时，模仿的是什么。 如果我们最初的发现表明感知对象是声学的或听觉的，那么我们将问模仿是表面声学形式还是更抽象的规范化形式。 如果最初的研究结果表明发音知觉对象，然后我们会问是否表面发音或语言手势模仿。 我们还建议探讨各种因素（特别是各种语言学习），影响模仿能力和保真度。 我们项目的一个重要研究工具是电磁发音计（EMMA），它将使我们能够跟踪我们的受试者的手势，并将它们与他们所跟踪的语音联系起来。 然而，涉及声学测量、感知判断或两者的其他技术也将用于评估模仿保真度。 我们希望我们的研究有助于对感知对象的辩论，因此，在基础和应用研究的进展。

The overall aim of our research is to use the demonstrated tendency for adults to imitate the speech they hear as a tool to explore the nature of speech perception. In initial studies, we explore the nature of objects of speech perception (i.e., acoustic or articulatory), a topic that is much debated in the field of speech research. The question is of interest in its own right as an important topic for basic research. It also has implications for application, for example, for the design of successful speech recognition devices. We intend to confirm and then exploit the tendency that humans appear to have to imitate the speech of others. We also propose to explore what is imitated when imitations occur. If our initial findings suggest that perceptual objects are acoustic or auditory, then we will ask whether imitations are of surface acoustic forms or of more abstract normalized forms. If initial findings suggest articulatory perceptual objects, then we will ask whether surface articulations or linguistic gestures are imitated. We also propose to explore the kinds of factors (especially varieties of language learning) that influence both imitation facility and fidelity. An important research tool for our project is the electromagnetic articulometer (EMMA) that will allow us to track the gestures of our subjects and relate them to those of the speech that they shadow. However, other techniques involving acoustic measurement, perceptual judgments or both will also be used to assess imitative fidelity. We expect our research to contribute usefully to the debate about perceptual objects, and, therefore to advances in both basic and applied research.