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Contrastive pitch range distribution improves cognitive processing of audio messages
Abstract
his study explores the effect of different speaker intonation strategies in audio messages on attention, autonomic arousal, and memory. An experiment was conducted in which participants listened to 16 radio commercials produced to vary in pitch range across sentences as an independent variable. Dependent variables were self-reported effectiveness and adequacy, psychophysiological arousal and attention, immediate word recall and recognition of information. Results showed that commercials conveyed with pitch variations achieved better scores compared to commercials with a homogenous pitch range across the sentences. This was especially the case when high pitch intonation was followed by low pitch within a sentence.
... Yet, people are capable of perceiving and comprehending speech produced by different speakers through a process of speech normalization (Johnson, 2005), which filters speech to allow listeners access to a representation in the mental lexicon (see e.g., Krulee, Tondo, & Wightman 1983;Johnson, 2005;Johnson & Sjerps, 2021). Researchers continue to study the impact of additional factors such as speech rate (e.g., Rodero, 2019), gender (e.g., Rodero, Larrea, & Vázquez, 2013), pitch (e.g., Rodero, Potter, & Prieto, 2017), and accent/language variety (e.g., Birch & McPhail, 1997;Lalwani, Lwin, & Li, 2005) on cognitive processing in general, and cognitive processing of commercial advertising in particular. Cognitive processes are tied to an individual's capacity to store, comprehend, and recall information. ...
... Another factor that is related to the gender of a voice is pitch. Rodero et al. (2017) compared the number of correct words recalled across four intonation patterns and found that commercial messages with pitch variations, compared to those with a homogenous pitch, have a positive impact on recall and memory. A third factor that has been researched in detail as having an effect on a listener's memory of advertisements is speech rate. ...
... The stimuli used in the present study consisted of eight carefully selected auditory MSA and DA commercial advertisements. The number of advertisements is less than that used in previous studies such as Rodero et al. (2017) and Rodero (2019) which used 16 and 12, respectively. However, the number of advertisements per condition is the same as in these studies. ...
Commercial advertisements in Arabic-speaking regions tend to alternate between dialectal Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, but it is not yet clear whether language variety has any impact on listener's lexical recall. Insight into this issue should help enterprises design their commercial advertisements in a linguistically intelligent manner. This study addresses two questions: 1) How does language variety (dialectal vs. standard) affect listener's lexical recall in commercial advertisements? 2) Do listeners recall words that have appeared in dialectal advertisements better than those that did not appear in advertisements using the same variety? Fifteen Saudi participants responded to a forced-choice memory test with 24 yes-no questions (3 per advertisement) asking participants to report whether they heard a specific key word in eight advertisements that utilized different language varieties. The findings show that Arabic speakers tend to perceive both Modern Standard Arabic and dialectal Arabic in commercial advertisements similarly, but tend to recall the presence of a key word in an advertisement better than its absence. Future research may increase the sample size and examine more Arabic varieties.
... In this literature, heart rate is the only physiological response that seems to exhibit a 1-to-1 mapping with orienting responses, as EEG and SCL responses are also elicited by other processes (Cacioppo, Tassinary, & Berntson, 2000;Potter & Bolls, 2012). Specifically, an OR is indexed by heart rate when there is a distinct deceleration following a stimulus event (e.g. a voice change; Lang, Gao, et al., 2015;Potter, Jamison-Koenig, Lynch, & Sites, 2016;Rodero, 2015;Rodero, Potter, & Prieto, 2017) that then leads to an acceleration back to a homeostatic baseline (Barry, 1990). This deceleration and acceleration results in a U-shaped curve called the cardiac response curve (for a review of the cardiac response curve, see Thorson & Lang, 1992). ...
... Within the literature, cognitive resources have been shown to be elicited by camera cuts/edits (Lang et al., 2006;Lang, Kurita, et al., 2013;Lang, Park, et al., 2007), pitch changes or other structural features in audio (Lang, Gao, et al., 2015;Potter et al., 2008;Potter et al., 2016;Rodero, 2015;Rodero et al., 2017), motivationally relevant content (Clayton, Ridgway, & Hendrickse, 2017;Ordoñana, González-Javier, Espín-López, & Gómez-Amor, 2009;Potter & Keene, 2012;Potter, LaTour, Braun-LaTour, & Reichert, 2006;Rubenking & Lang, 2014;Wang, Solloway, et al., 2012), pop up banners in an online environment (Diao & Sundar, 2004;Lang, Borse, Wise, & David, 2002), content features in video games (Gangadharbatla, Bradley, & Wise, 2013), and computer controlled content presentation (Wise & Pepple, 2008;Wise & Reeves, 2007). These are often collectively referred to as orienting eliciting structural features (OESFs; Lang, 2009;. ...
... Completion of the encoding processes is typically indexed using forced-choice audiovisual recognition tasks or multiple choice questions related to message content (e.g. Keene & Lang, 2016;Langleben et al., 2009;Rodero et al., 2017;Yegiyan, 2015b). LC4MP research has shown that messages which elicit greater resource allocation are typically better encoded than those that elicit less resource allocation (e.g. ...
In the 15 years since its inception, the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP) has contributed to understanding regarding the dynamics of message processing in a variety of domains. In this manuscript we outline the foundations and assumptions of the LC4MP, discussing salient research from biology, cognitive psychology, and communication upon which the model is built. We then conduct a systematic review of the LC4MP literature with a focus on three primary domains: cognitive load, motivated processing, and memory. In a companion piece (Fisher, Huskey, Keene, & Weber, 2018) we look to the future of the model, incorporating recent findings from communication and cognate fields to inform an updated suite of predictions.
... Participants had to listen to the messages and rate them in an online survey using semantic differential scales of vocal effectiveness (how natural, pleasant, clear, persuasive, and dynamic the voice is) and adequacy (how credible, correct, appropriate and comprehensible the voice is). These 5-point scales have been used in other published studies of audio production strategies (Rodero et al., 2017) and were the same used for the main experiment. The pretest results confirmed the expected responses. ...
... The dependent variables used were divided into three parts, as in Rodero et al. (2017): (a) self-reported measures of effectiveness and adequacy; (b) psychophysiological measures of arousal via skin conductance level (SCL) and attention via heart rate (HR); and (c) cognitive tests to measure recognition accuracy and immediate recall. ...
Most consumers do not like the speech style that announcers use in marketing messages. The main reason is an exaggerated way of speaking with a strong emphasis. Indeed, announcers tend to stress too many words in commercials, producing an overly emphatic speech style, which sounds choppy and stuttering. This study analyzes how different strategies of emphasizing words in commercials affect the listeners' cognitive processing. Four different strategies (no emphasis, moderate‐low, moderate‐high, and over‐emphasis) were applied to 16 commercials. Participants (N = 52) had their physiological response (heart rate and skin conductance) measured during ad presentation. Afterward they assessed the commercials' effectiveness and adequacy and performed an immediate recall and a recognition test. The results indicated that the commercials presenting a moderate emphasis (low and high) improved the listeners' cognitive processing compared to messages with no emphasis strategy and the standard industry practice of using over‐emphasis.
... The prosodic means actualize the segmental composition of the text and connect individual segments into integral semantic units. Besides, the prosody divides the speech flow into suprasegmental units, phrases, Phoneticians agree (Rodero, Potter & Prieto, 2017;Wichmann, 2000), that there is no constant composition of prosodic parameters even in one type of text. The combinations of different features of the fundamental frequency peak values and frequency interval, intensity, and duration of structural elements of the utterance, influenced by the lexical and grammatical structure of the analyzed text usually form its prosodic organization. ...
... The analyzed programs helped us to carry out the acoustic analysis of English TV advertisements. All cases of fundamental frequency measurement were grouped depending on maximum tonal realization into extra-high, high, medium-high, medium-low, low, extra-low levels (Crystal, 2010;Rodero, Potter & Prieto, 2017). The comparison of the zones mentioned above in TV advertisements intended for addressees with different social status (high, middle, low) proved an increased use of the extra-high zone. ...
Research studies in a variety of linguistic areas indicate that scholars often refer to computer technologies that become popular as a tool to reinforce the findings and provide the validity of the experimental results. This paper discusses the use of computer technologies in the acoustic analysis of speech prosody focused on the English television advertising discourse. The article aims to determine what the main prosodic characteristics of English advertising discourse are, and how they contribute to the maximum influence on the television audience. Therefore, the study relies upon the acoustic analysis using sound processing software WaveLab, Cool Edit Pro, SpectraLAB, Wasp, Sound Forge to ensure the reliability and validity of the obtained results. Moreover, the computer programs used in this research allowed us to measure the pronunciation accuracy and present results based on many experimental data, not only on the assumptions. Besides, the linguistic interpretation of the data of the perceptual and acoustic analysis of the English television advertising discourse prosody proves a strong correlation of these data. The obtained results indicate that detailed analysis of the quantitative prosodic characteristics of speech enables to get a clear picture of the prosodic organization of the English television advertising discourse. The research proves that the prosody of the English advertising discourse closely correlates with its pragmatic potential and some sociolinguistic features, namely, the social status of the viewer, contribute to the maximum influence on the television audience.
... A melodic pitch range is recommendable in public speaking. 37 However, monotony is the main defect of nontrained professionals and the problem detected in the pretest. As these students of journalism ignore how to use pitch, voice education has to work to extend pitch range. ...
... Pitch range was expanded, what is recommendable according to some studies applied to radio. 37 Jitter was also reduced after training with significant differences. Nevertheless, according to the normal values, jitter should not exceed 1%. ...
Voice education is a crucial aspect for professionals (journalists, teachers, politicians, actors, etc.) who use their voices as a working tool. The main concerns about such education are that, first, there is little awareness of the importance of voice education, and second there is little research devoted to it. The consequences of this lack of training are indeed visible in professionals who suffer voice pathologies or work with little effectiveness. This study seeks to overcome this deficiency by proposing a training model tested with a control group and a pilot study. Speech samples from a group of experimental participants—journalism students—were collected before and after a training course designed to improve their main vocal and prosodic features. These samples were contrasted with a control group without training. Results indicated significant differences in all tested voice elements (breathing, articulation, loudness, pitch, jitter, speech rate, pauses, and stress) except for shimmer and harmonics. The participants were able to enhance their main vocal and prosodic elements, and therefore their expressiveness maintaining optimal vocal hygiene.
... Concurrently, spontaneous speech is increasingly used in TTS [7,8]. Spontaneous speech data is challenging to model, due to disfluencies and large variability [9]; offers high ecological validity for evermore commonplace conversational AI systems; and the varied prosody offered by spontaneous data positively impacts factors such as word recall and attention [10]. For conversational systems it would also be useful to be able to synthesize creaky phonation, as this have been found to be a strong turn-yielding cue [11,12]. ...
Spontaneous speech has many affective and pragmatic functions that are interesting and challenging to model in TTS (text-to-speech). However, the presence of reduced articulation, fillers, repetitions, and other disfluencies mean that text and acoustics are less well aligned than in read speech. This is problematic for attention-based TTS. We propose a TTS architecture that is particularly suited for rapidly learning to speak from irregular and small datasets while also reproducing the diversity of expressive phenomena present in spontaneous speech. Specifically, we modify an existing neural HMM-based TTS system, which is capable of stable, monotonic alignments for spontaneous speech, and add utterance-level prosody control, so that the system can represent the wide range of natural variability in a spontaneous speech corpus. We objectively evaluate control accuracy and perform a subjective listening test to compare to a system without prosody control. To exemplify the power of combining mid-level prosody control and ecologically valid data for reproducing intricate spontaneous speech phenomena, we evaluate the system's capability of synthesizing two types of creaky phonation. Audio samples are available at https://hfkml.github.io/pc_nhmm_tts/
... response, is a brief boost of attention immediately following the introduction of relevant or novel stimuli that typically elicits a deceleration in heart rate. Decades of research within the LC4MP framework have demonstrated that structural aspects of media can elicit attention in the form of ORs, including structural aspects as varied as pacing (Lang et al., 2000), pitch range voice variations and prosody (Rodero & Potter, 2017;Rodero & Cores-Sarría, 2022), onset of web pages with product information (Wise et al., 2013), or television infographics (Pjesivac et al., 2021). ...
This dissertation looks at the psychological effects of the breathing camera, a
type of camera optic flow (i.e., camera movement) that specifies a human observer
quietly breathing. Drawing from J. J. Gibson’s (1979) ecological approach to perception,
two key optical characteristics of the breathing camera are identified and manipulated
to probe the influence of natural perception on mediated perception. The first,
exteroceptive characteristic is the translation of the point of observation, which makes
available depth information of the surroundings through global optic flow. The second
characteristic is that the camera proprioceptively specifies a human observer by
engaging in human-like events. The breathing camera is an immersive perceptual
device that should increase the engagement of the viewer with the narrative. The
contributions of the two optical characteristics to the breathing camera effects are
experimentally tested with three conditions: a real breathing camera condition where
both types of information are available, a fake breathing camera condition where only
human-like proprioception is available, and a no camera flow condition where both
types of information are absent. Two separate sets of stimuli were used for the
experimental comparison. The first was a homemade set with 6 video messages filmed
documentary-style where camera condition was a within-video variable. The second
was a fiction set with 24 video messages extracted from dramatic and comedic serial
narratives where camera condition was a between-video variable for the comparisons
with the real camera. A combination of psychophysiological and self-reported methods were used to measure the effect of the breathing camera on the emotional and
attentional responses of the viewer. The real motion camera was found to elicit higher
physiological arousal than the other two cameras, indicating a stronger emotional
response, and it was found to be equivalent to the no camera flow condition otherwise.
The fake breathing camera was found to be the least effective condition, as shown by
lower attention levels and less emotional responses than both the real breathing
camera and than no camera flow. This was primarily confirmed by the physiological
variables in the homemade set, and by the self-reported variables in the fiction set.
... Higher pitch has been associated with better infant-adult connection both in individual variation (e.g., a comparison of depressed and nondepressed mothers; Porritt et al., 2014) and in experimental settings (i.e., when the mother is shown a supposedly live video of her infant, but the infant can versus cannot actually hear the mother; Smith & Trainor, 2008). Furthermore, studies show that speech conveying pitch variations (larger ranges of speaker intonations) also results in higher levels of attention, more word recall, and more recognition of information by the listener than those with homogenous pitch ranges across sentences (Rodero et al., 2017). Parentese speech, or speech characterized by higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation ranges, has been positively associated with early spoken word recognition and better acquisition of language by infants and has been shown to be preferred by children relative to standard speech (Liu et al., 2009;Singh et al., 2009;Ramírez-Esparza et al., 2017). ...
We assess the effects of the Crianza Positiva text and audio e-messaging program on caregiver–child language interaction patterns. The program is a six-month-long intervention for families with children aged 0–2 aimed at strengthening parental competences. Its design exploits behavioral tools such as reminders, suggestions of action, and messages of encouragement to reinforce and sustain positive parenting practices. Families in 24 early childhood centers in Uruguay that completed an eight-week workshop were randomized into receiving or not receiving mobile messages. After the program, we videotaped 10-minute sessions of free play between the caregiver and the child, and decoded language patterns using automated techniques. The intervention was successful at improving the quality of parental vocalizations, as measured by the parent's pitch range. We also found suggestive evidence of increases in the duration of adult vocalizations. The results are consistent with more frequent parental self-reported involvement in reading, telling stories, and describing things to the child. Regarding the child, we find a nonrobust decrease in the duration of vocalizations, which we attribute to a crowding-out effect by the caregiver in the context of a fixed 10-minute suggested activity and a more proactive parental role.
... Los seres humanos utilizamos las combinaciones melódicas de la voz a través de la entonación, la acentuación y los cambios de velocidad y las pausas para dotar de sentido a nuestras palabras. Por tanto, la prosodia incrementa la atención y mejora la comprensión del oyente (Rodero, Potter y Prieto, 2017). De hecho, según el neurocientífico Ramachandran 5 , la prosodia está unida a las partes emocionales del cerebro y, por esta razón, cuando escuchamos una voz tenemos la sensación de estar en compañía. ...
Anuario AC/E de cultura digital. Tendencias digitales de cultura. Acción Cultural Española
... Humans use melodic voice combinations through intonation, accentuation and changes of speed and pauses to give sense to our words. Therefore, prosody heightens the listener's attention and enhances their understanding (Rodero, Potter and Prieto, 2017). Indeed, according to the neuroscientist Ramachandran, 5 prosody is linked to the emotional parts of the brain and therefore, when we hear a voice, we have the sensation of being accompanied. ...
Listeners exhibit orienting responses to voice changes in audio messages. However, the impact of pitch similarity between voices on the nature of the OR has not been explored. We conducted a 3 (Vocal Pitch) × 2 (Location of Change in Message) × 2 (Repetition) within-subjects experiment to address this question. Four non-professional announcers were selected based on differences in vocal pitch. Twelve radio commercials were produced using these announcers to include a single voice change—with either Low-, Medium-, or High-Pitch Differences. The voice changes occurred either within the first or last 20 seconds of the commercial. Heart rate and recognition memory data were collected from 41 subjects. Results show that vocal-pitch difference between speakers impacts automatic attention allocation via the orienting response, and recognition memory for the message is thereby affected. Furthermore, results suggest that having voice changes occur early in an audio message produces the best attentional result.
Research has used the cardiac orienting response (OR) to show that structural changes in the auditory environment cause people to briefly but automatically pay attention to messages such as radio broadcasts, podcasts, and web streaming. The voice change—an example of an auditory structural feature—elicits orienting across multiple repetitions. This article reports two experiments designed to investigate whether automatic attention allocation to repeated instances of other auditory structural features—namely production effects, jingles, and silence—is a robust phenomenon or if repetition leads to habituation. In Study 1 we show that listeners of a simulated radio broadcast exhibit ORs following the onset of auditory structural features that differ in semantic content. The prediction that listeners would not habituate to feature repetition was not supported. Instead, both jingles and synthesized production effects result in more iconic ORs to the second repetition compared with the first. However, orienting significantly diminished following the third repetition of both. Study 2 replicates this result using multiple repetitions of structural features containing identical semantic content.
The Impact of Audio Information Intonation on Understanding Television News Content
The goal of the research presented in this article is to verify the hypothesis that television viewers have difficulties understanding news content due to inappropriate prosodic articulation used by reporters reading the news. News texts are often read with excessive rhetorical accent and omitting logical accents. Sometimes even the prosodic rules of text segmentation are broken as well. Understanding of news is analyzed in the areas of: (1) appropriately applying words, (2) receiving important, detailed information, (3) synthesis of news content and (4) cause-effect inference. It was found that inappropriate intonation of read news text results in television viewers: (1) being unable to correctly understand the words in accordance with the context of the news content, (2) not remembering the most important details of the news and (3) having problems with pointing out the real causes of events discussed in the news. In addition, it appears that reading of the text by reporters in logical accents and in accordance with the norms of Polish language prosody does not negatively influence the evaluation of news in terms of attractiveness, usefulness and objectivity.
Voice is our main communication resource but especially is the tool more important for working on radio. Voice on
radio transmits not only the explicit text, but also all the meaning and the affective dimension. Consequently, the
audience’s attention to the radio message as well as understanding and assimilating of it will depend on a correct
and expressive use of voice. Even in the most basic bibliography, the importance of the correct use of voice is
recognized. Nevertheless, the suitable training for the broadcasters always has not a special consideration. For these
reasons, this paper tries to realize a compendium of recommendations and defects around the use of voice on radio,
based on different empirical researches made in these years
Prosodic attributes of speech, such as intonation, influence our ability to recognize, comprehend, and produce affect, as well as semantic and pragmatic meaning, in vocal utterances. The present study examines associations between auditory perceptual abilities and the perception of prosody, both pragmatic and affective. This association has not been previously examined. Ninety-seven participants (49 female and 48 male participants) with normal hearing thresholds took part in two experiments, involving both prosody recognition and psychoacoustic tasks. The prosody recognition tasks included a vocal emotion recognition task and a focus perception task requiring recognition of an accented word in a spoken sentence. The psychoacoustic tasks included a task requiring pitch discrimination and three tasks also requiring pitch direction (i.e., high/low, rising/falling, changing/steady pitch). Results demonstrate that psychoacoustic thresholds can predict 31% and 38% of affective and pragmatic prosody recognition scores, respectively. Psychoacoustic tasks requiring pitch direction recognition were the only significant predictors of prosody recognition scores. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying prosody recognition and may have an impact on the assessment and rehabilitation of individuals suffering from deficient prosodic perception.
An experiment was designed to identify the voice change as a specific structural feature of radio that causes automatic allocation of cognitive resources to message encoding. The cardiac orienting response (OR) was used as an indication of this automatic resource allocation. It was hypothesized that listeners would exhibit cardiac ORs in response to voice changes and that the associated automatic resource allocation would result in momentary cognitive overload. Data were collected from 62 participants as they listened to nine messages that varied in the number of voice changes they contained. Results show robust cardiac orienting to voice changes and suggest that this response does not habituate over the course of 2-minute messages. Furthermore, auditory recognition data show that not only does orienting to voice changes result in momentary cognitive overload, but the severity of that overload depends on the total number of voice changes in the message.
Infants must learn to make sense of real-world auditory environments containing simultaneous and overlapping sounds. In adults,
event-related potential studies have demonstrated the existence of separate preattentive memory traces for concurrent note
sequences and revealed perceptual dominance for encoding of the voice with higher fundamental frequency of 2 simultaneous
tones or melodies. Here, we presented 2 simultaneous streams of notes (15 semitones apart) to 7-month-old infants. On 50%
of trials, either the higher or the lower note was modified by one semitone, up or down, leaving 50% standard trials. Infants
showed mismatch negativity (MMN) to changes in both voices, indicating separate memory traces for each voice. Furthermore,
MMN was earlier and larger for the higher voice as in adults. When in the context of a second voice, representation of the
lower voice was decreased and that of the higher voice increased compared with when each voice was presented alone. Additionally,
correlations between MMN amplitude and amount of weekly music listening suggest that experience affects the development of
auditory memory. In sum, the ability to process simultaneous pitches and the dominance of the highest voice emerge early during
infancy and are likely important for the perceptual organization of sound in realistic environments.
Most previous studies of vocal attractiveness have focused on preferences for physical characteristics of voices such as pitch. Here we examine the content of vocalizations in interaction with such physical traits, finding that vocal cues of social interest modulate the strength of men's preferences for raised pitch in women's voices. Men showed stronger preferences for raised pitch when judging the voices of women who appeared interested in the listener than when judging the voices of women who appeared relatively disinterested in the listener. These findings show that voice preferences are not determined solely by physical properties of voices and that men integrate information about voice pitch and the degree of social interest expressed by women when forming voice preferences. Women's preferences for raised pitch in women's voices were not modulated by cues of social interest, suggesting that the integration of cues of social interest and voice pitch when men judge the attractiveness of women's voices may reflect adaptations that promote efficient allocation of men's mating effort.
this paper we explore a new theory of discourse structure that stresses the role of purpose and processing in discourse. In this theory, discourse structure is composed of three separate but interrelated components: the structure of the sequence of utterances (called the linguistic structure), a struclure of purposes (called the intentional structure), and the state of focus of attention (called the attentional state). The linguistic structure consists of segments of the discourse into which the utterances naturally aggregate. The intentional structure captures the discourse-relevant purposes, expressed in each of the linguistic segments as well as relationships among them. The attentional state is an abstraction of the focus of attention of the participants as the discourse unfolds. The attentional state, being dynamic, records the objects, properties, and relations that are salient at each point of the discourse. The distinction among these components is essential to provide an adequate explanation of such discourse phenomena as cue phrases, referring expressions, and interruptions. The theory of attention, intention, and aggregation of utterances is illustrated in the paper with a number of example discourses. Various properties of discourse are described, and explanations for the behavior of cue phrases, referring expressions, and interruptions are explored. This theory provides a framework for describing the processing of utterances in a discourse. Discourse processing requires recognizing how the utterances of the discourse aggregate into segments, recognizing the intentions expressed in the discourse and the relationships among intentions, and tracking the discourse through the operation of the mechanisms associated with attentional state. This processing descrip...
This research volume serves as a comprehensive resource for psychophysiological research on media responses. It addresses the theoretical underpinnings, methodological techniques, and most recent research in this area. It goes beyond current volumes by placing the research techniques within a context of communication processes and effects as a field, and demonstrating how the real-time measurement of physiological responses enhances and complements more traditional measures of psychological effects from media.
The notion of language as a marker of identity is usefully explored in relation to news broadcast language. Newsreaders' speech, like all spoken language, is subject to change over time, and radio and television bulletins have been recording this process for as long as the technology has allowed. Evidence of Australia's evolution from colonial outpost to independent nation can be heard in the speech of its newsreaders, who in the mid 1940s began to move away from the RP accent that had been adopted along with the BBC model of broadcasting. This article presents some findings of research into those aspects of Australian newsreaders' speech which indicate change most clearly, i.e. vowel quality and intonation. Instrumental analyses conducted on data collected from three speaker groups suggest that whereas vowels have clearly shifted away from RP-like accents towards 'General' and even 'Broad' accents of Australian English, American-sounding intonation patterns may be eveloping in the speech of certain commercial FM radio newsreaders, contrary to what is stated in the literature.
The prosodic features of a message are a key factor in the transmission of information by radio. Some authors have demonstrated that perception and proper comprehension of radio news depend largely on the intonation, stress and speech rate used by the broadcaster. The aim of this study, therefore, is to determine the degrees of perception and recognition of information broadcast by radio when the prosodic features used in the transmission are modified. The main conclusion reached is that there is indeed a relationship between the prosodic combination employed and the way in which such information is perceived and recognized and, providing that the prosodic features observe the principle of distinctive and contrastive coherence, the information is perceived positively and recognition is highest.
In radio advertising, there is a strong tendency to employ male voices more often than female voices in the belief that male voices sound more convincing. As a result, a gender stereotype is established which would appear to be upheld more by tradition than actual advertising effectiveness. This experimental study analyses the influence of gender on the effectiveness of the voice in terms of adequacy to the product, the ability to attract listeners’ attention and the degree to which voice gender contributes to recall. The objective is to ascertain whether or not the patent infra-use of the female voice is justified. To this end, a gender-balanced sample of 372 students of journalism from Spain was employed. The findings show that when a question is asked about an alleged association with a pre-existing vocal stereotype the answer is consistent with the gender of the voice and the type of product, though this does not occur when the aspects are unrelated, such as voice effectiveness, attention or recall. Accordingly, the supremacy of the male voice over the female voice in radio advertising and the repeated association between voices and types of products is more based on tradition than on alleged advertising effectiveness.
The range of data investigated in the treatment of English Intonation has been rather too restricted, and emphasis has always been on the expressive or attitudinal function. Besides, the studies have often relied on data collected through isolated utterances and have rarely focused on genre-specific discourse, especially from nativized contexts. This paper investigates the importance of intonation in interactive professional communication, in an attempt to develop a system of discourse intonation analysis for news broadcast genres.
This paper applies the limited capacity model of motivated mediated messages (LC4MP) to the problem of creating effective messages about cancer. A general descrip-tion of the model is presented and then applied specifically to the task of creating effec-tive cancer communication messages by asking the following questions about cancer communication: (a) What is the goal of the message? (b) Who is in the target market? (c) What medium will carry the message? and (d) What is the motivational and personal relevance of the main information in the message for the majority of people in the tar-get market? The paper concludes that cancer is a motivationally relevant topic that will elicit aversive activation. Target markets for various types of cancer-related messages (e.g., smokers or people of a certain age) will process mediated messages in predictably different ways making certain design decisions better for certain target markets. Both structural and content elements of messages interact with the limited capacity informa-tion processing system to impact resource allocation, which in turn determines how well messages are encoded, stored, and retrieved at a decision point. Individual differences in peoples' motivational activation influence both their tendencies to engage in risky behaviors that increase the probabilities of getting cancer and their processing of health-related messages. Future research from this perspective should be done to opti-mize cancer messages for specific target audiences using specific media. Why do we study health communication specifically? Is health communication different from other types of communication? Is health communication about can-cer different from health communication about other topics? Obviously, we study health communication because we want to be able to deliver effective messages about health-related information and behaviors to people who would benefit from those messages.
IntroductionIntonation: Its Parts and RepresentationsIntonation in the Interpretation of Syntactic PhenomenaIntonation in the Interpretation of Semantic PhenomenaIntonation in the Interpretation of Discourse PhenomenaIntonational Meaning: Future Research Areas
This paper presents an information-processing model that is directly applicable to the investigation of how mediated messages are processed. It applies the model to the case of television viewing to demonstrate its applicability. It provides a measure for each part of the model. It presents evidence that supports the model in the television-viewing situation. Finally, it demonstrates how the model may be used to further research and understanding in well-known theoretical traditions. This model is not meant to stand in opposition to any of these theories but, rather, should work well with them by providing hypothesized mechanisms that may underlie well-known effects. This model should prove useful both to researchers and, eventually, to message producers. To the extent that we can better understand how the content and structure of messages interact with a viewer's information-processing system to determine which parts and how much of a communication message is remembered, we will make great strides in understanding how people communicate.
The effects of pitch accenting on memory were investigated in three experiments. Participants listened to short recorded discourses that contained contrast sets with two items (e.g. British scientists and French scientists); a continuation specified one item from the set. Pitch accenting on the critical word in the continuation was manipulated between non-contrastive (H* in the ToBI system) and contrastive (L+H*). On subsequent recognition memory tests, the L+H* accent increased hits to correct statements and correct rejections of the contrast item (Experiments 1-3), but did not impair memory for other parts of the discourse (Experiment 2). L+H* also did not facilitate correct rejections of lures not in the contrast set (Experiment 3), indicating that contrastive accents do not simply strengthen the representation of the target item. These results suggest comprehenders use pitch accenting to encode and update information about multiple elements in a contrast set.
Knowledge of differences in voice and speech characteristics between novice and professional broadcasters is essential for effective education of broadcast journalism students. Because newsreaders rely on optimal voice production, information pertaining to vocal hygiene is also important. The first aim of this study was to compare the voice and speech characteristics of professional newsreaders, student newsreaders and control participants. The second aim was to compare the awareness and use of vocal hygiene across these groups. Professional radio newsreaders, broadcast journalism students and two matched control groups were included in the study. Each participant recorded a news bulletin and completed a questionnaire on vocal hygiene. Data analysis of the recording included objective analysis and perceptual ratings by a panel of three judges. Significant student-professional differences were found. Compared to both the students and the control groups, the professional newsreaders had greater variation in speaking fundamental frequency, a faster rate of speech, fewer pronunciation errors and higher perceptual ratings on vocal quality, emphasis, continuity, phrasing and style of newsreading. Female professional newsreaders had a higher speaking fundamental frequency than both their control participants and the student newsreaders. Comparison of vocal hygiene awareness revealed few significant differences between any of the groups.
The role of intonation in conveying discourse relationships in auditory sentence comprehension was investigated in two experiments.
Using the simple comprehension time paradigm, Experiment 1 found that sentences with accented new information were understood
faster than sentences with a neutral intonation contour and that the presence of accent in context sentences facilitated comprehension
of subsequent targets. Both experiments showed faster comprehension times in conditions in which accent placement was appropriate
for the information structure of the sentence. In Experiment I, comprehension times were faster when the accent fell on the
information focus than when it fell elsewhere in the sentence. In Experiment 2, faster times resulted when new information
was accented and given information was not, compared to conditions in which this accent pattern was reversed. This effect
held for both active and passive sentences, and whether the new information occurred in the subject or object position.
The word "Anna" was spoken by 12 female and 11 male subjects with six different emotional expressions: "rage/hot anger," "despair/lamentation," "contempt/disgust," "joyful surprise," "voluptuous enjoyment/sensual satisfaction," and "affection/tenderness." In an acoustical analysis, 94 parameters were extracted from the speech samples and broken down by correlation analysis to 15 parameters entering subsequent statistical tests. The results show that each emotion can be characterized by a specific acoustic profile, differentiating that emotion significantly from all others. If aversive emotions are tested against hedonistic emotions as a group, it turns out that the best indicator of aversiveness is the ratio of peak frequency (frequency with the highest amplitude) to fundamental frequency, followed by the peak frequency, the percentage of time segments with nonharmonic structure ("noise"), frequency range within single time segments, and time of the maximum of the peak frequency within the utterance. Only the last parameter, however, codes aversiveness independent of the loudness of an utterance.
Quaderns de filologia: estudis de comunicación
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Broadcast Announcing Worktext
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Stephenson, A., Reese, D., & Beadle, M. (2013). Broadcast Announcing Worktext.
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Male and female voices in commercials
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miniMAM: Validating a short version of the Motivation Activation Measure
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 328636). Thanks to the Institute for Communication
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the
7th European Community Framework Programme (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 328636). Thanks
to the Institute for Communication Research in The Media School at Indiana University
where this research was conducted.