Final falling F0 facilitates quicker identification of utterance completion

Abstract

Utterance-final cues like falling pitch contour allows listeners to prepare to respond promptly when their conversation partner finishes speaking. We hypothesized that this ability might be compromised in listeners with poorer pitch perception such as those using cochlear implants. During the experiment, listeners heard 128 lists of 3–4 color-shape phrases (e.g., “a green square and a blue circle…”) where the final phrase was manipulated to have a falling F0 (indicating completion) or a sustained elevated F0 (indicating continuation). Listeners were asked to repeat the last item they heard as soon as the talker finished speaking; thus, response time was the outcome measure for determining the effect of the falling F0 contour. Typical hearing listeners responded more quickly to a list ending with falling pitch, more slowly to noise-vocoded stimuli lacking pitch cues, and even more slowly to lists ending in high plateaued pitch (indicating the task’s sensitivity to perception of continuation and to perturbation in pitch perception). Ongoing data collection with CI listeners is expected to show a reduced within-listener difference in response time to lists ending with the two pitch contours, suggesting these listeners might delay responding in conversation even if the words were perceived correctly.