The Effect of a Pseudopalate on Voiceless Obstruent Production: A Spectral Evaluation of Adaptation

• Main Author: Dean, Karie Lindsay
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2008
• Subjects: electropalatography; articulation; spectral moments; pseudopalate; obstruent production; speech production; adaptation; EPG; Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1546; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2545&context=etd

Many studies in speech communication have provided valuable findings concerning the kinematic nature of speech articulation. This type of research often involves introducing an oral device to the vocal tract such as lingual pellets, magnets, and different forms of pseudopalates to track the movement and placement of the articulators. This study examined the effect of an electropalatography (EPG) pseudopalate on the production of five voiceless obstruents (/p, t, k, s/ and /sh/). Acoustic recordings from 20 adult speakers with typical speech production were made during three different speaking conditions: prior to pseudopalate placement, immediately after placement, and following 20 minutes of conversation. The obstruent articulations were examined in terms of four spectral moments (spectral mean, spectral variance, spectral skewness, and spectral kurtosis). The spectral analysis indicated that placement of a pseudopalate resulted in a statistically significant disturbance of the speakers' obstruent productions. After 20 minutes of conversation with the pseudopalate in place, results of the spectral analysis indicated that participants' productions trended back toward a typical pattern of articulation; however their adaptation was not complete and it remains unclear if further practice with the pseudopalate would result in typical speech production.