The effect of prosody on decision making: Speech rate influences speed and quality of decisions
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The effect of prosody on decision making: Speech rate influences speed and quality of decisions Melissa T. Buelow 1 & Julie M. Hupp 1 & Brandon L. Porter 1 & Coryn E. Coleman 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract This study examined the effects of speech rate on decision making across two age groups. Prior research has found that listening to fast speech can lead to subsequent rate changes on other tasks. The present study sought to examine if different speech rates (slow and fast) could alter decision making speed and performance accuracy in college students (ages 18–20) and preschool-aged children (ages 3–5). Participants listened to a recording (fast or slow) and then completed the Hungry Donkey Task to assess risky decision making. The results suggest that speech rate priming relates to response latencies and performance on a subsequent task. Participants in the slow condition had longer response times and made more advantageous decisions than those in the fast condition. College student participants’ performance was more accurate than the children’s performance following the slow prime, but there was no difference following the fast prime. These findings suggest that there is a shared timing mechanism across domains, and we may be able to capitalize on this to improve decision making. Keywords Decision making . Prosody . Rate . Speech cues . Hungry Donkey Task
Speech contains both verbal and non-verbal aspects that work together to improve communication. Prosody is how something is said and includes variations in pitch, rate, frequency, timing, and loudness (Cutler et al. 1997; Leitman et al. 2010; Szczepak Reed 2011). We often try to match prosody with others (Bock 1986; Bock et al. 2007; Branigan et al. 2000; Dale and Spivey 2006; Hutenlocher et al. 2004; Whitehurst et al. 1974), and prosodic aspects of speech can have a significant influence on behavior (Nygaard et al. 2009; Shintel et al. 2006). In addition, we make decisions on a daily basis that can have a significant effect on health and well-being. At times, we are pressured to make these decisions quickly, which could in turn affect the quality of these decisions. The current study explores how one component of prosody, speech rate, affects timing and quality of subsequent decisions.
* Melissa T. Buelow [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, 1179 University, Drive, Newark, OH 43055, USA
Speech Rate Of particular importance to the current study is speech rate. Speech rate can convey information—for example, how fast something is said indicates its importance or possibly a sense of urgency (Hellier et al. 2002). People often match each other’s speech rate, and this prosodic coordination improves comprehension (Giles and Powesland 1975; Savelkoul et al. 2007) and message processing efficiency (Berger and Roloff 1980). When rate is manipulated with fast or slow primes prior to a task, participants’ verbal output is slower following a slow prime and faster following a fast pr
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