The speech focus position effect on jaw-finger coordination in a pointing task

Amélie Rochet-Capellan (1) , Rafael Laboissière (2) , Arturo Galvan (2) , Jean-Luc Schwartz (3)

1 GIPSA-lab - Grenoble Images Parole Signal Automatique
2 IMPNSC - Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences [Leipzig]
3 GIPSA-PMD - GIPSA - Parole, Multimodalité, Développement

Purpose: This paper investigates jaw-finger coordination in a task involving pointing to a target while naming it with a 'CVCV (e.g. /'papa/) vs. CV'CV (e.g. /pa'pa/) word. According to our working hypothesis, the pointing apex (gesture extremum) would be synchronized with the apex of the jaw opening gesture corresponding to the stressed syllable. Method:Jaw and finger motions were recorded using Optotrak. The effects of stress position on jaw-finger coordination were tested across different target positions (near vs. far) and different consonants in the target word (/t/ vs. /p/). Twenty native Portuguese Brazilian speakers participated in the experiment (all conditions). Results: Jaw response starts earlier and finger-target alignment period is longer for CV'CV words than for 'CVCV ones. The apex of the jaw opening gesture for the stressed syllable appears synchronized to the onset of the finger-target alignment period (corresponding to the pointing apex) for 'CVCV words, and with the offset of that period for CV'CV ones. Conclusions:For both stress conditions, the stressed syllable occurs within the finger-target alignment period due to tight finger-jaw coordination. This result is interpreted as an evidence for an anchoring of the speech deictic site (part of speech that shows) in the pointing gesture.

Domaines: Psychologie; Linguistique

Amélie Rochet-Capellan, Rafael Laboissière, Arturo Galvan, Jean-Luc Schwartz. The speech focus position effect on jaw-finger coordination in a pointing task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2008, 51 (6), pp.1507-1521. ⟨10.1044/1092-4388(2008/07-0173⟩. ⟨hal-00282323⟩