Honors Theses and Capstones
Exploring Lexical Stress Perception: An Investigation Across Varied Listener Experience with Prosody
Date of Award
Spring 2024
Project Type
Senior Honors Thesis
College or School
CHHS
Department
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Program or Major
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
First Advisor
Jill Thorson
Second Advisor
Meg Morgan
Third Advisor
Don Robin
Abstract
Prosody is a characteristic of speech that allows others to understand emotion, emphasis, and meaning of language more deeply. Perceptual accuracy by speech-language pathologists is critical to diagnosing speech disorders. This study examined perceptual abilities of three different groups in identifying lexical stress across groups. Four SLPs, 6 SLP graduate students, and 6 untrained listeners listened to 396 audio files elicited in a prior study using the lexical stress tasks from the Prosodic Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) and the naturalistic lexical stress (NLS) tasks. Listeners were asked if syllable stress was on the first syllable, second syllable, or ambiguous. Findings show that perceptual accuracy was ~60% for SLPs, who performed significantly better than the SLP grad students and the untrained listeners. This work highlights the importance of training perceptual discrimination in speech-language pathology.
Recommended Citation
Pride, Olivia J., "Exploring Lexical Stress Perception: An Investigation Across Varied Listener Experience with Prosody" (2024). Honors Theses and Capstones. 792.
https://scholars.unh.edu/honors/792