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Speech Fluency and Ageing

Polfeldt, Harry LU (2022) ALSK13 20212
Division of Linguistics and Cognitive Semiotics
General Linguistics
Abstract
Several physiological changes in the speech production process in old age have been documented, yet studies of cognitive changes are few and inconclusive. The current study investigates changes in rates of disfluencies, rates of speech errors and speech rate to examine if speech fluency changes throughout the adult lifespan, as well as whether the influence of task complexity on fluency remains constant regardless of the age of the speaker. Elicited speech from six young, six middle-aged and five older speakers of Swedish describing five simple and five complex stimuli is analysed for disfluencies, speech errors and speech rate. The study finds no significant relationship between the speaker’s age and rate of disfluencies, speech errors or... (More)
Several physiological changes in the speech production process in old age have been documented, yet studies of cognitive changes are few and inconclusive. The current study investigates changes in rates of disfluencies, rates of speech errors and speech rate to examine if speech fluency changes throughout the adult lifespan, as well as whether the influence of task complexity on fluency remains constant regardless of the age of the speaker. Elicited speech from six young, six middle-aged and five older speakers of Swedish describing five simple and five complex stimuli is analysed for disfluencies, speech errors and speech rate. The study finds no significant relationship between the speaker’s age and rate of disfluencies, speech errors or speech rate, and no cohort is significantly more affected by task complexity. The findings suggest that fluency remains relatively intact throughout the adult lifespan. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Polfeldt, Harry LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A study of disfluencies, speech errors and speech rate in three age groups
course
ALSK13 20212
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
fluency, age, ageing, aging, linguistics, language, disfluencies, disfluency, dysfluency, dysfluencies, speech, error, errors, psycholinguistics, pause, pauses, repetition, repetitions, lengthening, lengthenings, prolongation, prolongations, swedish, interruption, interruptions, filled, unfilled, unfilled pause, unfilled pauses, filled pause, filled pauses, speech error, speech errors, speech fluency
language
English
id
9078253
date added to LUP
2022-04-11 10:50:58
date last changed
2022-04-11 10:50:58
@misc{9078253,
  abstract     = {{Several physiological changes in the speech production process in old age have been documented, yet studies of cognitive changes are few and inconclusive. The current study investigates changes in rates of disfluencies, rates of speech errors and speech rate to examine if speech fluency changes throughout the adult lifespan, as well as whether the influence of task complexity on fluency remains constant regardless of the age of the speaker. Elicited speech from six young, six middle-aged and five older speakers of Swedish describing five simple and five complex stimuli is analysed for disfluencies, speech errors and speech rate. The study finds no significant relationship between the speaker’s age and rate of disfluencies, speech errors or speech rate, and no cohort is significantly more affected by task complexity. The findings suggest that fluency remains relatively intact throughout the adult lifespan.}},
  author       = {{Polfeldt, Harry}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Speech Fluency and Ageing}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}