Essays in Speech Processes - Language Production and Perception - Augustine Agwuele
Profiling individual differences in speech production
Essays in Speech Processes - Language Production and Perception - Augustine Agwuele
Sandra P. Whiteside
University of Sheffield
Description
Since Bjorn Lindblom’s paper on F2 locus equations (F2 LEs) (Lindblom, 1963), there has been much discussion and debate about understanding the complex processes underlying speech perception. Furthermore, long standing and continued research by Harvey Sussman and his colleagues on F2 LEs has served to stimulate a significant body of research and discussion on this topic in neurolinguistics, phonetics and the behavioral sciences to name but a few (e.g. Sussman et al., 1998). However, thus far, less emphasis has been placed on the use of F2 LEs as a metric for gauging and assessing individual differences in the speech production of both healthy and clinical populations. This paper presents and reviews a number of non-clinical and clinical studies which have adopted F2 LEs to profile the speech patterns of individuals. The contribution of F2 LEs as a metric for understanding a range of individual differences in speech production across the lifespan will be the focus of this review.