Eyewitnesses are important for the outcome of many criminal cases. Sometimes other evidence is lacking and the testimony then becomes decisive, but it is difficult to know how reliable the eyewitness’ memories are. This study aimed to investigate speech rate as an indicator of memory accuracy. The hypothesis was that correct memories would be presented with a faster speech rate than incorrect memories. The participants (n = 10) were students who were part of a previous study by Lindholm et al. (2018). The students watched a film sequence and were interviewed afterwards about what they had seen. Their answers were recorded and the voice was analyzed digitally. A t-test for dependent samples showed that correct statements had significantly faster speech rate than incorrect ones. The results support the hypothesis and are in line with previous research on making asserted statements faster. Should future research show similar results, the method of digital voice analysis could be used as a complement in the judiciary to evaluate testimony. Understanding what acoustic indicators are on correct or incorrect memories could be helpful in assessing testimonies for judges, jurors, legal representatives and the police force. / Ögonvittnen är viktiga för utgången i många brottmål. Ibland saknas övrig bevisning och vittnesmålet blir då avgörande men det är svårt att veta hur pålitliga ögonvittnens minnen är. Denna studie syftade till att undersöka talhastighet som en indikator på korrekthet i minnen genom användning av digital röstanalys. Hypotesen var att talhastigheten vid korrekta minnen skulle vara snabbare än vid inkorrekta. Deltagarna (n = 10) var studenter som ingick i en tidigare experimentell studie av Lindholm et al. (2018). Studenterna fick se en film och intervjuades efteråt om vad de sett. Deras svar spelades in och rösten analyserades digitalt. Ett t-test för beroende mätningar visade att talhastigheten vid korrekta påståenden var signifikant snabbare än vid inkorrekta. Resultatet stödjer hypotesen samt ligger i linje med tidigare forskning kring att säkra påståenden sker snabbare. Skulle framtida forskning visa på liknande resultat skulle metoden med digital röstanalys kunna användas som ett komplement inom rättsväsendet som stöd vid vittnesmål. Förståelse för vilka akustiska indikatorer som finns på korrekta eller inkorrekta minnen skulle kunna vara hjälpsamma i vittnesförhör, både hos domare, nämndemän, juridiska ombud och hos polisen.

No description available.

國立政治大學碩士論文提要 研究所別：語言學研究所 論文名稱：中國學生閱讀及朗讀時靜默停頓停頓的研究：國語與英語比較 指導教授：楊懿麗 教授 研究生：沈君怡 論文提要內容：（共一冊，40972字，分五章17節，並扼要說明內容，共203字） 本論文主要探討中國學生以第一語言（華語）和第二語言（英語）來朗讀及說故事時，五個時間變項的不同。五個時間變項包括：停頓時間、停頓比例、發聲速度、說話速度、及語句長度。我們希望藉由各時間變項的變異及相關理論的探討，可以對使用不同語言及不同說話形式的說話歷程作一個了解。 從各時間變項的變異可知，受試者說華語較說英語流利，朗讀較說故事流利。這樣的結果顯示停頓的確反映了不同的說話歷程。 / Abstract The purpose of the present study is to analyze temporal variables in two languages and two speech styles. The “temporal variables” here include pause duration, pause percentage, articulation rate, speech rate, and utterance length. Besides those temporal variables, two pause locations are observed: “between” or “within” major constituents (sentences and clauses). The two languages under discussing are Mandarin Chinese and English, and the two speech styles are reading and story-telling. We hope to understand the processes of reading and story-telling in Mandarin and English. The data of the present study are speech from sixteen males and sixteen females of Cheng-chi University. All of them are native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, and started to learn English at junior high school. They are asked to read a story either in Chinese or in English and tell the story on their own. Also, for fear that subjects’ performance may be influenced by the order of reading and story-telling, half of the same group are asked to read before telling story, and the other tell the story before reading. So we have two independent variables: language and style. The design of the experiment is 2×2. There are three important results in our study. 1. Pause duration is shorter, pause percentage is lower, articulation rate and speech rate is faster, and utterance length is longer in Mandarin than in English. 2. As far as speech style is concerned, pause is shorter and fewer in reading than in story-telling, with slower articulation rate and speech rate, and longer utterance. 3. More pauses are found to appear between major constituents in Mandarin than in English, in reading than in story-telling. However, fewer pauses are found within major constituents in Mandarin than in English; in reading than in story-telling.

The thesis analyses the accuracy and fluency exhibited in the spoken advanced-learner English of Czech students of English philology. It draws its data from a learner corpus comprising fifty 15-minute interviews with these learners and from a parallel native-speaker corpus of forty-nine 15-minute interviews. As regards accuracy, the learner data is analysed using techniques of error analysis. Salient features of advanced learner English are identified and the subsequent quantitative analyses reveal that throughout the entire group of students (which is characterized by what revealed itself to be a wide proficiency span) two groups of error types are found to be much more frequent than any other, namely errors in the use of articles and tenses. For the fluency measurements a small selection of variables has been chosen to describe speed fluency (speech rate) and breakdown fluency (the frequency of unfilled and filled pauses), and the results are compared with those for the parallel native-speaker corpus. The analysed native speakers are found to produce speech at a generally much higher rate than the majority of the learners. There does not appear - at least in the light of the given sample - to be any direct correlation between fluency and the frequency of errors. Moreover, the learners are found...

The present thesis addresses the issue of the impact of two independent variables - speech rate and interpreters' experience - on the length of time lag in simultaneous interpreting from English to Czech. Time lag, or ear-voice-span (EVS), in simultaneous interpreting is the time difference between the input in source language and the output in target language. The study comprises of two parts. The first, theoretical part summarises the current state of research on the subject. The second, empirical part compares the average EVS in excerpts of sixty simultaneous interpreting renditions uttered by forty-nine subjects divided into two speech rate categories and three experiential categories. The aim is to find out, firstly, whether there are any differences in EVS length based on speech rate, and, secondly, how the interpreters' level of experience influences their EVS length. The first main finding is that a higher speech rate leads, on average, to a shorter EVS than an optimal speech rate; this does not, however, apply in the case of professional interpreters - their EVS length is not affected by speech rate. The second main finding is that the interpreters' level of experience influences EVS length significantly: the more experienced the subjects, the shorter their EVS on average. While evaluating...

(in English): The work in this diploma contains an analysis of speech accuracy and fluency of Russian speaking and English speaking students of Czech language, based on case studies. For these case studies two Russian speaking students and two English speaking students were chosen to take part. The results were compared to the results of one native Czech speaker. The accuracy and fluency analysis was carried out based on the language principles of Rod Ellis. Within the accuracy analysis, the number of error free clauses and the average number of mistakes per one hundred words were measured. Accuracy of speech is examined through concrete grammatical phenomena like the usage of reflexive particle se/si and the usage of the verb to be in the past tense. The work in this diploma also considers the ability of analysed speakers to switch between language codes and to distinguish features of formal and spoken Czech language (spoken language in informal situations). The fluency of speech is studied based on the speech rate of all analysed speakers by counting the number of syllables per one hundred words. Subsequently, the number of false starts, repetition of words or phrases, the frequency of usage of parasite words and hesitation sounds were also examined. One of the diploma hypothesis is the statement...