Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task
Abstract Looking at the mouth region is thought to be a useful strategy for speech-perception tasks. The tendency to look at the eyes versus the mouth of another person during speech processing has thus far mainly been studied using screen-based paradigms. In this study, we estimated the eye-mouth-i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40017-8 |
| _version_ | 1797453185099497472 |
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| author | Charlotte Viktorsson Niilo V. Valtakari Terje Falck-Ytter Ignace T. C. Hooge Maja Rudling Roy S. Hessels |
| author_facet | Charlotte Viktorsson Niilo V. Valtakari Terje Falck-Ytter Ignace T. C. Hooge Maja Rudling Roy S. Hessels |
| author_sort | Charlotte Viktorsson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Looking at the mouth region is thought to be a useful strategy for speech-perception tasks. The tendency to look at the eyes versus the mouth of another person during speech processing has thus far mainly been studied using screen-based paradigms. In this study, we estimated the eye-mouth-index (EMI) of 38 adult participants in a live setting. Participants were seated across the table from an experimenter, who read sentences out loud for the participant to remember in both a familiar (English) and unfamiliar (Finnish) language. No statistically significant difference in the EMI between the familiar and the unfamiliar languages was observed. Total relative looking time at the mouth also did not predict the number of correctly identified sentences. Instead, we found that the EMI was higher during an instruction phase than during the speech-processing task. Moreover, we observed high intra-individual correlations in the EMI across the languages and different phases of the experiment. We conclude that there are stable individual differences in looking at the eyes versus the mouth of another person. Furthermore, this behavior appears to be flexible and dependent on the requirements of the situation (speech processing or not). |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:19:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0f664cdc8c504d55bc9bf11107a8c585 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T15:19:11Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-0f664cdc8c504d55bc9bf11107a8c5852023-11-26T12:53:54ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222023-08-011311910.1038/s41598-023-40017-8Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing taskCharlotte Viktorsson0Niilo V. Valtakari1Terje Falck-Ytter2Ignace T. C. Hooge3Maja Rudling4Roy S. Hessels5Development and Neurodiversity Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala UniversityExperimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht UniversityDevelopment and Neurodiversity Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala UniversityExperimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht UniversityDevelopment and Neurodiversity Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala UniversityExperimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht UniversityAbstract Looking at the mouth region is thought to be a useful strategy for speech-perception tasks. The tendency to look at the eyes versus the mouth of another person during speech processing has thus far mainly been studied using screen-based paradigms. In this study, we estimated the eye-mouth-index (EMI) of 38 adult participants in a live setting. Participants were seated across the table from an experimenter, who read sentences out loud for the participant to remember in both a familiar (English) and unfamiliar (Finnish) language. No statistically significant difference in the EMI between the familiar and the unfamiliar languages was observed. Total relative looking time at the mouth also did not predict the number of correctly identified sentences. Instead, we found that the EMI was higher during an instruction phase than during the speech-processing task. Moreover, we observed high intra-individual correlations in the EMI across the languages and different phases of the experiment. We conclude that there are stable individual differences in looking at the eyes versus the mouth of another person. Furthermore, this behavior appears to be flexible and dependent on the requirements of the situation (speech processing or not).https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40017-8 |
| spellingShingle | Charlotte Viktorsson Niilo V. Valtakari Terje Falck-Ytter Ignace T. C. Hooge Maja Rudling Roy S. Hessels Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task Scientific Reports |
| title | Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task |
| title_full | Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task |
| title_fullStr | Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task |
| title_short | Stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech-processing task |
| title_sort | stable eye versus mouth preference in a live speech processing task |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40017-8 |
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