The effect of facial musculature on cross modal perception

Speech processing has been shown as a cross modal interaction of different sensory systems. The present study explored cross modal perceptions in speech, particularly facial musculature in vowel categorization, discrimination and audiovisual processing. The study hypothesized that facial musculature...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Leong, Charis Lianne
Other Authors: Suzy Styles
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62602
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Speech processing has been shown as a cross modal interaction of different sensory systems. The present study explored cross modal perceptions in speech, particularly facial musculature in vowel categorization, discrimination and audiovisual processing. The study hypothesized that facial musculature congruence would bias perception of speech towards assigned lip condition and thus influencing speech perception. The study used a between-subjects design (Lip-rounding x Lip-spreading x Neutral Lip) with 60 participants. Participants were given audio identity tasks, audio discrimination tasks and audiovisual tasks to investigate individual components of speech perception. The purpose of the study was masked using a cover story. This study found significant cross modal interaction between facial musculature and perception of speech and explained observed results referencing to the facial feedback hypothesis and motor theory of speech. These findings suggest facial musculature influences speech perception at a subconscious level. Limitations and implications to future research were also discussed.