Effect of Pre-utterance Pause Length on Perceptions of Communicative Competence in AAC-Aided Social Conversations

Abstract

The effect of pause length on ratings of communicative competence of social interactions of three individuals who used AAC was investigated. The AAC systems utilized in the study were whole-utterance text storage and retrieval devices. Pause length was manipulated by replacing natural pauses (average 16 s) in three recorded conversations of each individual with pauses averaging 2 s, 6 s or 10 s. Participants (n = 28) recorded their level of agreement with 14 statements relating to the communicative competence of the nine conversations, some with each of 2 s , 6 s 10 s, and natural pause lengths inserted. There was a highly significant linear trend, with the natural pause condition receiving the lowest ratings through to the 2 s pause condition with the highest ratings.

• Pause Length
• Conversational Rate
• Aided Conversation
• Stored Utterances
• Social Conversation
• Communicative Competence
• Social Effectiveness
• Voice Output Communication Aid (VOCA)