When Primed with Word Beginnings, Speakers Prepare with their Mouths as Well as their Minds

What is it about?

Speech researchers generally agree that our speech is guided by plans taking the form of abstract intentions to produce certain sequences of sounds. We are still fleshing out our understanding of the relationship between these intentions and the behavior they support. Some research in this area "primes" speakers with partial information about how words will start, and looks at whether that priming shortens the time from when a speaker is cued with the whole word to when they produce audible speech sounds. It is usually assumed that the behavior that produces speech sounds happens all at once, and only starts after the cue for the whole word is given. Therefore, researchers have concluded that the priming influences intentions that are held in the mind, but NOT held in the body. We used an atypical measurement that involved motion-tracking speakers' lips. We found that when primed with word beginnings, speakers demonstrated this knowledge via silent speech-related behavior starting well before they were cued with the full word. In fact, speakers showed these early silent speech behaviors even when they could only be 75% certain of how the word would start.

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Why is it important?

Lip motion gives a much richer perspective on how speakers behave in this task, and what strategies they use. In the absence of lip motion, researchers have previously viewed active anticipation in this task as being an aberrant strategy. Behavioral "guessing" has been seen as undesirable, relatively uncommon, and set apart from what the task is intended to promote. However, the lip motion data suggest that some form of "guessing" (though perhaps of very small, or even blended, speech sound units) might be what speakers have been doing all along in this task. This quite possibly changes the interpretation of previous results.