IMITATION--A TOOL FOR STUDYING SPEECH PERCEPTION

我们研究的总体目的是利用成年人模仿他们听到的语言的趋势作为探索语言感知本质的工具。在最初的研究中，我们探索了语音感知对象（即声学或发音）的本质，这是一个在语音研究领域备受争议的话题。这个问题本身就是基础研究的一个重要课题。它对应用也有启示，例如，对设计成功的语音识别设备。我们打算证实并利用人类似乎不得不模仿他人语言的倾向。我们还建议探索当模仿发生时，被模仿的是什么。如果我们的初步发现表明感知对象是声学或听觉的，那么我们将询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感知对象，那么我们将询问表面发音或语言手势是否被模仿。我们还建议探讨影响模仿能力和逼真度的各种因素（特别是各种语言学习）。我们项目的一个重要研究工具是电磁关节计（EMMA），它将使我们能够跟踪研究对象的手势，并将它们与他们所跟踪的讲话的手势联系起来。然而，涉及声学测量、感知判断或两者兼而有之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能够对关于感知对象的争论做出有益的贡献，从而在基础研究和应用研究方面取得进展。

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.