Effects of Delayed Auditory Feedback Upon Articulation

Abstract

16 young males read a prose passage 5 times each with time delay of amplified auditory feedback of 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 seconds. Articulatory disturbances were analyzed and described. Disturbance was maximum when delay was 0.2 seconds. Severity varied substantially with delay interval and type of error. Delayed auditory feedback selectively varies the number of disturbances. Substitutions produced are phonetically unlawful. Delay-induced omissions were high in frequency of occurrence and fairly substantial numbers of them were poly-phonetic. About 70% of additions were repetitive and appeared unpurposeful responses to stimuli. Most insertions were mono-phonetic, unstressed and occurred between words. Two other forms of errors, shifted juncture and slighting, were considerably less common.