Speech errors across the lifespan

Abstract

Dell, Burger, and Svec (1997) proposed that the proportion of speech errors classified as anticipations (e.g., “moot and mouth”) can be predicted solely from the overall error rate, such that the greater the error rate, the lower the anticipatory proportion (AP) of errors. We report a study examining whether this effect applies to changes in error rates that occur developmentally and as a result of ageing. Speech errors were elicited from 8- and 11-year-old children, young adults, and older adults. The error rate decreased and the AP increased from children to young adults, but neither error rate nor AP differed significantly between young and older adults. In cases where fast speech resulted in a higher error rate than slow speech, the AP was lower. Thus, there was overall support for Dell et al.'s prediction from speech error data across the lifespan.

This research was presented as a poster at the 42^nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Orlando, USA, November 2001.

This research was presented as a poster at the 42^nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Orlando, USA, November 2001.

Acknowledgement

It was supported by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust (F/215/AY). We are grateful to Brian Robinson, Jessica Hartley, and Kathryn Lovelock for assistance in data collection and error transcription, to Michelle Ellefson for helpful discussion, and to two anonymous reviewers for their commands and suggestions.

Notes

This research was presented as a poster at the 42^nd Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Orlando, USA, November 2001.

¹Note that the mean number of errors for the 16 participants on which this analysis is based was 12.13 for the slow rate (SD = 5.91), and 16.63 for the fast rate (SD = 8.14). A paired t-test on the mean number of errors for these 16 participants in the slow and fast condition revealed that significantly more errors were made at the fast rate, t(15) = − 2.15, p<.05, consistent with the finding from all 20 participants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janet I. Vousden

Correspondence should be addressed to Janet I. Vousden, Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. J.I. [email protected].