COGNITIVE-LINGUISTIC DEMANDS AND SPEECH BREATHING

This investigation examined the influence of cognitive-linguistic proc essing demands on speech breathing. Twenty women were studied during p erformance of two-speaking tasks that were designed to differ in cogni tive-linguistic planning requirements. Speech breathing was monitored with respiratory magnetometers from which recordings were made of the anteroposterior diameter changes of the rib cage and abdomen. Results indicated that speech breathing was similar across speaking conditions with respect to nearly all measures of lung volume, rib cage volume, and abdomen volume. Task-related differences were found for certain fl uency-related measures. Specifically, the number of syllables produced per breath group was smaller, average speaking rate was slower, and a verage lung volume expended per syllable was greater under a higher co gnitive-linguistic demand condition than under a lower-demand conditio n. These differences were explained by the fact that silent pauses, pa rticularly those associated with expiration, were more prevalent and l onger in duration under the higher-demand condition. It appears that t he mechanical behavior of the breathing apparatus during speaking gene rally is unaffected by variations in cognitive-linguistic demands of t he type investigated; however, fluency-related breathing behavior appe ars to be highly sensitive to such demands.