Production and Perception of Tone (2005 journal article)

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SocOfAutism
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14 Aug 2015, 11:00 am

"Perception and Production of Prosody by Speakers with Autism Spectrum Disorders" by Rhea Paul et al, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol 35 (2), April 2005.

I just happened across this today. It was on something I only have read access to so I couldn't download it.

"Prosody" is basically tone of voice. This was a study of 27 people between the ages of 14 and 21 who were matched with a typically developed control group. They gave the kids sentences and then asked them to distinguish the tone or to produce the tone. The only subcategory of tone in which there was a difference between the two groups was in stress tone.

For example, here's a sentence they all did okay on: "Ellen the dentist is here." In one way, Ellen is a dentist, and in the other way, Ellen is waiting for the dentist, who is now here. "Ellen, the dentist, is here" is the first sentence and "Ellen, the dentist is here" is the second.

But when asked to use or distinguish stress, the autistic kids didn't do quite as well. For example: "You're going to be late for school" is the original sentence, to be changed into: "You're going to be late for school." (calm) or "You're going to be late for school!" (stress)

Anyhow, I thought this was interesting and thought I'd share it.



Rudin
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14 Aug 2015, 12:07 pm

I didn't know that this was common.

If you want to know what I sound like in social situations watch a (horrible) show called Freaks and Geeks and listen to a character named Bill Haverchuck, I sound almost exactly like him. It was made in 1999 before James Franco and Seth Rogen were such a big deal, as I said it has a horrible plot.


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Xenization
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19 Aug 2015, 4:40 pm

You were right, it's intriguing and definitely worth sharing. Up until a little while ago, I wasn't aware that I had a strange prosody. But I definitely do--it's one of the first things people notice about me. :)


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