Disfluencies in spontaneous speech in easy and adverse communicative situations: The effect of age
Date: 2019
Abstract:
Disfluencies are a pervasive feature of speech communication. Their function in
communication is still widely discussed with some proposing that their usage might aid
understanding. Accordingly, talkers may produce more disfluencies when conversing in
adverse communicative situations, e.g. in background noise. Moreover, increasing age may
have an effect on disfluency use as older adults report particular difficulties when
communicating in adverse conditions. In this study, we elicited spontaneous speech via a
problem-solving task from four different age groups (19–76 years old) to investigate the
effect of energetic and informational maskers on the use of filled pauses (FPs), and its
interaction with age. Measures of disfluency rates, effort ratings, and communication
efficiency were obtained. Results show that, against our predictions, FP usage may decrease
in adverse conditions. Moreover, age does not play a great role in adults with normal hearing.
The results indicate that individuals differ greatly in their disfluency adaptations, utilising
different strategies to overcome challenging communicative situations