EUROSPEECH 2003 - INTERSPEECH 2003 8th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology Geneva, Switzerland September 1-4, 2003

Disfluency Under Feedback and Time-Pressure

H.B.M. Nicholson (1), E.G. Bard (1), A.H. Anderson (2), M.L. Flecha-Garcia (1), D. Kenicer (2), L. Smallwood (2), J. Mullin (2), R.J. Lickley (3), Y. Chen (1)

(1) University of Edinburgh, U.K.
(2) University of Glasgow, U.K.
(3) Queen Margaret University College, U.K.

Speakers engaging in dialogue with another conversationalist must create and execute plans with respect to the content of the utterance. An analysis of disfluencies from Map Task monologues shows that a speaker is influenced by the pressure to communicate with a distant listener. Speakers were also subject to time-pressure, thereby increasing the cognitive burden of the overall task at hand. The duress of the speaker, as determined by disfluency rate, was examined across four conditions of variable feedback and timing. A surprising result was found that does not adhere to the predictions of the traditional views concerning collaboration in dialogue.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Nicholson, H.B.M. / Bard, E.G. / Anderson, A.H. / Flecha-Garcia, M.L. / Kenicer, D. / Smallwood, L. / Mullin, J. / Lickley, R.J. / Chen, Y. (2003): "Disfluency under feedback and time-pressure", In EUROSPEECH-2003, 205-208.