Aims: To understand the processes of speech production and perception as they operate normally and pathologically. Objectives: Students are taught the way the...

Aims: To understand the processes of speech production and perception as they operate normally and pathologically. Objectives: Students are taught the way the lungs, larynx and vocal tract operate to produce speech. The physical representation of speech and the way that this is represented in spectrograms is given.  These are used as a basis for investigating models of speech production. The ways that speech production is affected in pathological cases (stuttering, Down syndrome, other genetic disorders, etc) is given. It is shown how speech synthesizers mimic the form of speech seen on spectrograms. The use of synthesis techniques in studying speech perception in humans and animals are given as well as theories that attempt to explain speech perception. It is shown how hearing impairment affects the perception of speech.  Summary: Topics are expected to include: Terminology from Phonetics. Pulmonary and laryngeal systems. Acoustic characteristics of phonation signal. Frequency response of vocal tract. Spectrographic representation of speech. Application to speech production: Levelt’s model of speech control and critique. The EXPLAN model of speech control Production: Speech timing –cerebellum, Wing-Kristofferson, STI, Down syndrome, Parkinson’s speech. Coarticulation-phenomena and theories. Speaker differences. Dialogue interaction Ethics of experimental work on production. DSM-IV and classification of speech disorders Effects of hearing problems on speech control (otitis media and cochlear implants). Agrammatic aphasia speech.Stuttering its diagnosis and treatment. Speech perception; phenomena and theories. Categorical perception. Perception of accented speech. Auditory scene analysis and applications to speech perception. Motor theory of speech perception and mirror neurons.

 

This module is a survey of central questions and concepts of recent ethical theory. Precise contents may vary slightly by year. Some topics include: the nature...