Hesitation Phenomena and Related Encoding Characteristics in Speech and Typewriting

Abstract

Intercorrelations among various hesitation phenomena, production variables, and message characteristics found in spoken responses were factor analysed in an attempt to establish a parsimonious description of basic attributes underlying encoding behaviour. For comparative purposes, a similar analysis was conducted on measures obtained from typewritten messages. The four factors found in the spoken messages were interpreted as : time spent in cognitive decision making, the amount of message produced, disruptions due to stress in the encoding situation, and degree of syntactic elaboration of sentences. Factors found in the analysis of typewritten messages only roughly approximated those found for speech. A subsequent analysis of part of speech frequencies in the two message types revealed additional syntactic distinctions between the two modes, distinctions which were attributed to the differential feedback conditions usually available in the different encoding situations.