Random Generation of Apparent Speech Rhythms

Abstract

In order to illustrate the misinterpretation of time series data, simulated temporal patterns of vocalizations and pauses were generated from a table of random digits. These data exhibited precisely those characteristics which, when seen in graphs of actual spontaneous speech, have heretofore been taken as evidence for cognitive planning. This concretizes a previously made point concerning the need to distinguish random process from causal connection.