Perception of Gradually Changing Speech Rate

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to observe how speech with gradual changes in rate is perceived. I created 27 stimuli in Japanese to solve this question. They consisted of three kinds of speech rates (fast, normal, and slow) and three kinds of ways of reading (even, acceleration, and deceleration). Utilizing these stimuli, I conducted two experiments on 10 Japanese native speakers.

In the first experiment, the styles of reading were found to affect judgments of speech rate on the stimuli.

In the other, the judgments were found not to be fixed, when the subjects listened to the stimuli with changes in rate.